Physical properties of reactive sputtered tin-nitride thin films
Introduction
Tin nitride (SnNx) is one of the group IV nitrides and has not been extensively studied. We found the electrochromic behavior of amorphous tin-nitride films prepared by ion plating, and investigated the fundamental characteristics of electrochromic cells based on this material.[1]The chemical bonding states of both amorphous and polycrystalline tin-nitride films prepared by ion plating and reactive sputtering were investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).2, 3Recently, further studies have been performed on the synthesis of polycrystalline tin-nitride films by reactive sputtering.4, 5Lima et al. investigated the crystal structure and chemical composition of polycrystalline tin-nitride films prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering.[4]They found that the films had a C6 hexagonal structure isomorphous to Ca(OH)2 and had a tin-rich composition. Maruyama et al. studied the dependence of various physical properties of polycrystalline tin-nitride films on sputtering conditions.[5]
In this study, we report on the dependence on rf power of the structural, electrical and optical properties of tin-nitride films prepared by reactive sputtering. The chemical bonding states of tin and nitrogen in the films are also discussed.
Section snippets
Experimental
Tin-nitride films were prepared by an rf magnetron sputtering system. After a deposition chamber was evacuated below 3×10−4 Pa, nitrogen gas was introduced into the chamber. The nitrogen pressure was kept at 0.27 Pa, which corresponds to the mean free path of nitrogen in the plasma at 25 mm. We varied the rf power from 50 to 175 W. The substrate temperature was not maintained at a constant value and increased from room temperature up to about 40°C during deposition. The deposition conditions are
Crystal structure
Fig. 1 shows a typical XRD patterns for tin-nitride films. Some sharp diffraction peaks are observed and correspond to the Mirror indexes as noted in this figure. From their positions, we comfirm that the crystal structure of tin nitride belongs to an hexagonal system which has the lattice parameters of a=0.369 nm and c=0.529 nm. The preferred orientation is [001], which is not changed with the rf power.
The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of a diffraction peak is related to the crystallinity of
Conclusions
Polycrystalline tin-nitride thin films were deposited onto glass substrates by rf reactive sputtering. The basic physical properties, such as structural, electrical and optical properties were investigated. XPS measurements revealed the chemical bonding states and the composition of the deposited films. We obtained the binding energies of Sn3d and N1s as 486.1 eV and 396.5 eV, respectively, and the latter inplied the higher ionicity of the Sn–N bond in the tin-nitride films than that of Si–N in
References (13)
- et al.
Proc. Symp. Plasma Sci. for Materials
(1996) - et al.
Solid State Commun.
(1991) - et al.
J. Electron Spectrosc. and Related Phenomena
(1978) Proc. SID
(1987)- et al.
Proc. Symp. Plasma Sci. for Materials
(1994) - et al.
J. Appl. Phys.
(1995)
Cited by (72)
Influence of post-annealing on structural, optical and electrical properties of tin nitride thin films prepared by atomic layer deposition
2021, Applied Surface ScienceCitation Excerpt :Similar results have been reported by Caskey et al., in their study, sputtered Sn nitride thin films showed a pair of distinct Sn 3d spectra corresponding to Sn+2 and Sn+4 oxidation states due to the mixed phase present in the film [19]. There are studies in the literature that report that the metastability was proven by Auger electron spectroscopy or XPS analysis, and that it disassociates into the metal element upon annealing under specific treatment conditions, and that decomposition starts between 420 °C and 615 °C (y-Sn3N4 shows stability in a vacuum up to 300 °C) [15,17,18,23,24,43,47]. Due to its poor stability, it is rather difficult to define the exact stoichiometry of tin nitride films, because of the spontaneous oxidation, decomposition, and sputter damage when sputter-cleaned prior to XPS.
Spinel-Type nitride compounds with improved features as solar cell absorbers
2020, Acta MaterialiaBand modification of tin nitride thin films for green energy generation
2020, Journal of Physics and Chemistry of SolidsExcessive nitrogen doping of tin dioxide nanorod array grown on activated carbon fibers substrate for wire-shaped microsupercapacitor
2019, Chemical Engineering JournalPhysical, photochemical, and extended piezoelectric studies of orthorhombic ZnSnN <inf>2</inf> nanocolumn arrays
2019, Applied Surface Science