“…4 Hafnium nitride films have previously been grown by reactive direct current diode sputtering, 5 reactive radio frequency diode sputtering, 6,7 reactive direct current magnetron sputtering, [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] reactive radio frequency magnetron sputtering, [18][19][20][21][22] reactive high power impulse magnetron sputtering, 23 plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition, 24 electron beam physical vapor deposition, 25 activated reactive evaporation (ARE), 26 pulsed laser deposition 27,28 and ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD). 29 a tumi@hi.is Application of HfN thin films include diffusion barriers 7,22,30 and gate electrodes [31][32][33] in integrated circuits, as microelectronic emitters in field emitter arrays, 18 as absorber layer in solar cells, 17 as an intermediate layer in hydrogen permeation membranes, 34 as thermal barrier coatings 25 and as hard and protective coatings on tools. 8,35 High power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) is a fairly new growth method where short and powerful pulses with a low repetition frequency are applied to a conventional magnetron sputter tool.…”