Influence of Substrate Temperature on Microstructure of Zirconium Silicon Nitride Thin Films Deposited by Reactive Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

Zr-Si-N thin films were co-deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering to verify the influence of silicon content (1.6 and 8.0 at. % Si) and substrate temperature (room temperature and heated to 973 K) on structure, morphology, chemical bonds and hardness. GAXRD shows a change in grain orientation from ( 111) to ( 200) due substrate heating for sample Zr 0.984 Si 0.016 N, furthermore, it was not possible to identify any silicon compounds in all deposited samples. SEM-FEG images show greater roughness and surface clusters for sample Zr 0.920 Si 0.080 N due to the heat applied on the substrate, with Si 3 N 4 decomposition, influencing thin film hardness. XPS analyses of Si 2p photoelectronic region shows only Si 3 N 4 presence in all samples, proving, in conjunction with other characterization results, the non-formation of substitutional or interstitial solid solution, regardless of substrate heating or silicon content added to ZrN matrix.