Structural, electrical, optical, and mechanical characterizations of decorative ZrOxNy thin films

Abstract

The main objective of this work is the preparation of decorative zirconium oxynitride, ZrOxNy, thin films by dc reactive magnetron sputtering. Film properties were analyzed as a function of the reactive gas flow and were correlated with the observed structural changes. Measurements showed a systematic decrease in the deposition rate with the increase of the reactive gas flow and revealed three distinct modes: (i) a metallic mode, (ii) a transition mode (subdivided into three zones), and (iii) an oxide mode. The measurements of target potential were also consistent with these changes, revealing a systematic increase from 314to337V. Structural characterization uncovered different behaviors within each of the different zones, with a strong dependence of film texture on the oxygen content. These structural changes were also confirmed by resistivity measurements, whose values ranged from 250to400μΩcm for low gas flows and up to 106μΩcm for the highest flow rates. Color measurements in the films revealed a change from bright yellow at low reactive gas flows to red brownish at intermediate flows and dark blue for the films prepared at the highest flows. Hardness measurements gave higher values for the region where larger grain sizes were found, showing that the grain growth hardening effect is one of the main parameters that can help explain the observed behavior. Also the peak intensity ratio and the residual stress states were found to be important factors for explaining this behavior.

Structural, optical, and electrical properties of WOx(Ny) films deposited by reactive dual magnetron sputtering

“…For Γ 0.840 Γ > , the resistivity decreased sharply to reach a value of 1.8 × 10 -2 Ωcm at . This can be explained by the increase of the metallic bond contribution and the formation of nitrogen doped WO 0.999 Γ = 3 , as was proposed for zirconium oxynitride [14].…”

“…This is because the metal-nitrogen bonds tend to be less polar than the corresponding metal-oxygen bonds, which leads to a higher polarizability for the metal nitrides [12] and a decrease of the optical band gap. The color is particularly changed by the more covalent bond character introduced by nitrogen upon oxygen replacement in A-WO x , where A is a rare earth element [13], or by nitrogen replacement in ZrN [14]. The introduction of oxygen into the tungsten nitride lattice relieves residual stress [15].…”

Analysis of multifunctional oxycarbide and oxynitride thin films by modulated IR radiometry

“…The two coatings ZrON3 and ZrON4 were prepared with reactive gas flows of 16 and 17.5 sccm, keeping again constant all other deposition parameters, described in more detail in ref. [3].…”

“…4, the coatings ZrON1 and ZrON2 are metal-like coatings with a cubic-type structure, whereas the coatings ZrON3 and ZrON4 have a different crystalline structure characterized by a mixture of two electrically insulating structures: An orthorhombic nitride structure and a cubic oxynitride structure [3]. These differences of composition and structure, which affect all film properties [3,4], are found in the range of intermediate and higher modulation frequencies of the inverse calibrated modulated IR phases ( 1/2 > 150, the inverse calibrated phases measured for the two coatings ZrON3 ( ) and ZrON4 (+) considerably exceed the zero-line (Φ n = 0 deg), showing a behavior which is characteristic for semi-transparent coatings, as observed in fact for these two films in optical measurements carried out by UV-Vis spectrophotometry [3,4]. On the other hand, the inverse calibrated phases, measured for the two coatings ZrON1 (o) and ZrON2 (∆) at higher modulation, deviate from the two-layer model to lower values.…”

ZrNO–Ag co-sputtered surfaces leading to E. coli inactivation under actinic light: Evidence for the oligodynamic effect

“…These materials are used as gate dielectrics [30] temperature sensors in magnetic fields [31], corrosion resistance coatings [32] and decorative films (golden, gray and black tones) [33,34]. But these oxynitrides have been poorly explored for the inactivation of micro-organisms/bacteria.…”