Effects of Nitrogen Flow Ratio on Structures, Bonding Characteristics, and Mechanical Properties of ZrNx Films

Abstract

ZrNx (x = 0.67–1.38) films were fabricated through direct current magnetron sputtering by a varying nitrogen flow ratio [N2/(Ar + N2)] ranging from 0.4 to 1.0. The structural variation, bonding characteristics, and mechanical properties of the ZrNx films were investigated. The results indicated that the structure of the films prepared using a nitrogen flow ratio of 0.4 exhibited a crystalline cubic ZrN phase. The phase gradually changed to a mixture of crystalline ZrN and orthorhombic Zr3N4 followed by a Zr3N4 dominant phase as the N2 flow ratio increased up to >0.5 and >0.85, respectively. The bonding characteristics of the ZrNx films comprising Zr–N bonds of ZrN and Zr3N4 compounds were examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and were well correlated with the structural variation. With the formation of orthorhombic Zr3N4, the nanoindentation hardness and Young’s modulus levels of the ZrNx (x = 0.92–1.38) films exhibited insignificant variations ranging from 18.3 to 19.0 GPa and from 210 to 234 GPa, respectively.

Strong Green Photoluminescence in Zr3N4 Thin Films with an Orthorhombic Structure

“…Referring to the standard diffraction patterns of ZrN (PDF#35-0753) and O-Zr 3 N 4 (PDF#51-0646) in Figure 1a, it is difficult to identify the phase structure of such a nitrogen-rich zirconium nitride thin film. However, the electron diffraction pattern of TEM provides additional and valuable information (Table S1, the lattice constants calculated by electron diffraction pattern are consistent with the reported result 29,30 ). As seen in Figure 1b, the electron diffraction pattern can be well indexed by O-Zr 3 N 4 rather than cubic phases of ZrN, C-Zr 3 N 4 (spinel), D-Zr 3 N 4 , and C-Zr 3 N 4 (Th 3 P 4 ).…”

Estimation of the Young’s Modulus of Nanometer-Thick Films Using Residual Stress-Driven Bilayer Cantilevers

“…The equivalent bending rigidity of the cantilever (EI) e is given as reported in a previous report [20]: (4) where z r,f,a is the distance between the neutral axis of each material and the bottom of the cantilever. The subscripts r, f, a denote the reference layer, the thin film, and the adherence layer, respectively.…”

“…At this level, the determination of the Young's modulus requires very different procedures to the traditional uniaxial tensile tests of bulk samples. Several techniques, including nanoindentation [3][4][5], bulge test [6][7][8], electrostatic pull-in experiments [9,10], or resonantbased methods [11,12] have been developed for this purpose. However, they often require complex experimental setups and extraction procedures that complicate the replicability of the experimental results.…”

Influence of magnetron sputtering process parameters on low-temperature electrical transport characteristics of zirconium oxynitride thin films

“…In recent years, transition metal oxynitrides have attracted much attention for their high hardness [1,2], high electrical conductivity, corrosion resistance [3], good thermal stability [4,5], and diffusion barriers [6][7][8][9]. These properties make it have good application prospects in the fields of hard coatings, diffusion barriers and microelectronic devices.…”