Annealing Effects on the Grain Growth and Electrical Properties of ZrO₂ Buffered Chromium Nitride Thin Films

Abstract

Pure chromium nitride thin films were deposited on a ZrO2 layer buffered oxide ceramic substrate by the chemical solution deposition method. The effects of annealing temperature on their microstructure and electrical properties have been investigated. Using the buffer layer, the cracks and falling off caused by dewetting and/or strain resulted from the large thermal expansion coefficient mismatched substrate are avoided, the nitrogen content in the films is increased via inhibiting oxygen diffusion from the substrate at elevated temperature, and the lowest annealing temperature required is reduced. All the films show semiconductor behavior, and their resistivity and phase transition temperature increase initially and then decrease with increasing annealing temperature, which is related to the varied nitrogen content. These results suggest that a suitable buffer layer will not only provide a facile route with low synthesis temperature but also can effectively control the nitrogen content for the solution-derived metal nitride thin films.

Solution Processable CrN Thin Films: Thickness-Dependent Electrical Transport Properties

“…All the films are single-phase and have no detectable impurities. The X-ray diffraction patterns can be indexed by the space group of Fm-3m (PDF card number 03-065-9001) with a rock-soft structure, as shown in the left inset of Figure 2, which is consistent with the previous results [22,23]. The derived thin films were randomly oriented and had a polycrystalline structure.…”

“…The diffraction rings from center to edge are indexed as (111), (200), (220) and (311) respectively, indicating the polycrystalline characteristics. The crystal structure of the derived CrN thin film can be indexed as a rock-soft cubic structure with the space group of Fm-3m (PDF card number 03-065-9001), which is the same as in previous reports [22,23].…”