Effects of substrate bias and nitrogen.pdf

Applied Surface Science 255 (2009) 8263–8269 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Applied Surface Science journal h omepage: /locate/apsusc Effects of substrate bias and nitrogen flow ratio on the surface morphology and binding state of reactively sputtered ZrNx films before and after annealing J.S. Jeng a,*, J.S. Chen b a Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Far East University, Tainan County 744, Taiwan b Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: ZrNx films were sputtered in an Ar + N2 atmosphere, with different substrate biases (0 to 200 V) at Received 1 April 2009 various nitrogen flow ratios (%N2 = 0.5–24%). The surface morphology, resistivity, crystllinity, and Received in revised form 24 May 2009 bonding configuration of ZrNx films, before and after vacuum annealing, were investigated. As compared Accepted 25 May 2009 with ZrNx films grown without substrate bias, before and after annealing, the resistivity of 1% and 2% N2 Available online 16 June 2009 films decreases with increasing substrate biases. Simultaneously, if the applied bias is too high, the crystallinity of ZrNx film will decrease. The surfaces of 1% and 2% N2 flow films deposited without bias Keywords: have small nodules, whereas