In the research reported in this contribution, chromium-zirconium nitride (CrZrN) layers were deposited on (100) silicon wafer by balance magnetron sputtering using argon and nitrogen as working and reactive gas, respectively. The coating layers were categorized into three groups according to zirconium content; low-zirconium (Low-Zr), medium-zirconium (Med-Zr) and high-zirconium (High-Zr). All layers had thicknesses in the range of 1.0-1.3 μm and the Med-Zr was the thickest sample. From the X-ray diffraction (XRD) results, zirconium could partially dissolve in chromium nitride (CrN) and formed complex nitride of chromium-zirconium [(Cr,Zr)N]. This phasic group was dominant for all samples, and the average crystallite sizes decreased with increasing zirconium fraction. In addition, the High-Zr sample had an extra broadened peak among (Cr,Zr)N peaks which could not clearly be identified by XRD. This ambiguity was eliminated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It was determined to be amorphous of zirconium oxynitride (Zr2ON2). Because of the high oxygen sensitivity of zirconium, it reacted with nitrogen and residual oxygen forming Zr2ON2. This study is among the first to examine the resulting nanoscale structure of the CrN layers incorporated with a high amount of zirconium.

This research investigated the changing morphology of silicon (Si)-supported titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) thin lms with different heating rates and molecular weights (M W ) of the added polyethylene glycol (PEG). The TiO 2 lms were deposited on a Si wafer (100) by sol-gel spin coating with PEG (M W = 6,000 or 35,000 g·mol −1 ) as pore generating agents. Calcination at 450 C completely decomposed all the organic residues in the TiO 2 sol, and the resultant lms were in the anatase phase. The combustion nature of PEG was found to be the main factor controlling the lm s morphology, where the exothermic heat of PEG combustion tended to be higher with increased heating rates and dependent on the type of PEG (extended and folded chain crystal). At heating rates of 10 C·min −1 or higher, the exothermic heat led to localized grain coalescence in the TiO 2 lms, which decreased the lm porosity. However, this exothermic heat also simultaneously induced pore agglomeration. Hence, the average pore size of PEG-containing lms were larger than in lms without PEG. In contrast, the heating rate did not signicantly affect the morphology lms without PEG.

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In the research reported in this contribution, chromium-zirconium nitride (CrZrN) layers were deposited on (100) silicon wafer by balance magnetron sputtering using argon and nitrogen as working and reactive gas, respectively. The coating layers were categorized into three groups according to zirconium content; low-zirconium (Low-Zr), medium-zirconium (Med-Zr) and high-zirconium (High-Zr). All layers had thicknesses in the range of 1.0-1.3 μm and the Med-Zr was the thickest sample. From the X-ray diffraction (XRD) results, zirconium could partially dissolve in chromium nitride (CrN) and formed complex nitride of chromium-zirconium [(Cr,Zr)N]. This phasic group was dominant for all samples, and the average crystallite sizes decreased with increasing zirconium fraction. In addition, the High-Zr sample had an extra broadened peak among (Cr,Zr)N peaks which could not clearly be identified by XRD. This ambiguity was eliminated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It was determined to be amorphous of zirconium oxynitride (Zr2ON2). Because of the high oxygen sensitivity of zirconium, it reacted with nitrogen and residual oxygen forming Zr2ON2. This study is among the first to examine the resulting nanoscale structure of the CrN layers incorporated with a high amount of zirconium.