Zirconium oxynitride films: Modulation of component as a function of the preparation parameters

Abstract

Zirconium oxynitride films have recently received much attention because their properties may gradually be changed by varying the concentration of N, O and Zr constituents during processing. Here, we reported zirconium oxynitride films prepared by RF reactive magnetron sputtering technique. The films were deposited by different targets: ZrO2 and ZrN with the variation of nitrogen and oxygen flow rate. To explore whether the N content could be gradually incorporated into the films, two series of samples were prepared: one was prepared by the ZrO2 target with the variation of the nitrogen flow rate; the other was prepared by the ZrN target with the variation of the oxygen flow rate. The composition and structure of the films were investigated by XPS, EDS and XRD techniques. XPS results show that when the ZrO2 material was used as target the concentration of N was highly dependent on the flow rate of nitrogen, while the Zr concentration gradually decreased with the increase of N concentration; ZrO[Formula: see text]N[Formula: see text] and ZrO were formed. However, for ZrN used as target, the fresh film of the sample comprised of O and Zr elements without N detected. When the N2 was introduced as reactive gas with oxidized ZrN target, ZrO[Formula: see text]N[Formula: see text] film with a certain content of N was formed.