Sputter-cleaned Epitaxial VxMo(1-x)Ny/MgO(001) Thin Films Analyzed by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy: 2. Single-crystal V0.47Mo0.53N0.92

Abstract

Epitaxial VxMo(1-x)Ny thin films grown by ultrahigh vacuum reactive magnetron sputter deposition on MgO(001) substrates are analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). This contribution presents analytical results for 300-nm-thick single-crystal V0.47Mo0.53N0.92/MgO(001) films deposited by reactive cosputtering from V (99.95% purity) and Mo (99.95% purity) targets. Film growth is carried out in a UHV chamber with base pressure 2 × 10−9 Torr at 700 °C in mixed Ar/N2 atmospheres at a total pressure of 5 mTorr, with a N2 partial pressure of 3.2 mTorr; a bias of −30 V is applied to the substrate. Films composition is determined by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS). XPS measurements employ monochromatic Al Kα radiation (hν = 1486.6 eV) to analyze V0.47Mo0.53N0.92(001) surfaces sputter-cleaned in-situ with 4 keV Ar+ ions incident at an angle of 70° with respect to the surface normal. XPS results show that the ion-etched sample surfaces have no measurable oxygen or carbon contamination; film composition, obtained using XPS sensitivity factors, is V0.34Mo0.66N0.81. All core level peaks, including the nearby Mo 3p3/2 (binding energy of 394.1 eV) and N 1s (at 397.5 eV) peaks, are well-resolved. Comparison to the V0.48Mo0.52N0.64 single-crystal film, submitted separately to Surface Science Spectra, indicates that with decreasing growth temperature from 900 to 700 °C (and increasing nitrogen concentration in VxMo(1-x)Ny from y = 0.64 to 0.81) the N 1s core level peak shifts towards lower binding energy by 0.1 eV while all metal atom peaks move in the opposite direction by the same amount.