On the origin of the metastable β-Ta phase stabilization in tantalum sputtered thin films

Coatings with nanoscale architectures, such as nanocomposites or nanolaminates, offer improved mechanical properties and resistance to radiation environments due to their increased interface area per unit volume. Here, we present a systematic study of the evolution of structure, stress state and mechanical properties of nanoscale ZrN/SiN x multilayers with different thickness of elementary layers, grown at T s  = 300 °C by reactive magnetron sputter-deposition from Zr and Si 3 N 4 targets. Both the multilayer period Λ (7–41 nm range) and ZrN thickness ratio, f Me , (0.24–0.95 range) were varied. X-ray reflectivity and transmission electron microscopy revealed the presence of planar interfaces, with roughness lower than 1 nm, yielding to the formation of a highly periodic layer stacking throughout the entire film thickness. X-ray diffraction (XRD) show that the presence of amorphous SiN x layer (for elementary thickness h a  ≥ 1 nm) induces a change in the preferred orientation of the cubic (B1-type) ZrN layers from (111) to (002), while the ZrN layer becomes X-ray amorphous at thickness h Me lower than 2 nm. Using in situ wafer curvature measurements we show that both SiN x and ZrN layers are growing under an intrinsic compressive stress state, of a constant value of − 1 GPa for SiN x and varying from − 5.7 to − 4 GPa with increasing ZrN layer thickness. Nanoindentation tests revealed a gradual increase of the elastic modulus from 200 to 265 GPa with f Me , while the hardness showed a maximum ( H  = 24.1 GPa) for the ZrN(8 nm)/SiN x (0.4 nm) multilayer, corresponding to an 3–4 GPa increase compared to monolithic ZrN (21.0 GPa) and Si 3 N 4 (19.2 GPa) films. We ascribe this enhancement of mechanical properties to local epitaxy and stronger bonding at (001) ZrN/SiN x interfaces when the SiN x thickness reduces down to 0.4 nm, as confirmed by XRD results obtained from ZrN/SiN x superlattices grown on MgO (001) substrate.

Growth, structural and mechanical properties of magnetron-sputtered ZrN/SiNx nanolaminated coatings

In the present work we comparatively study the thermal stability and oxidation resistance of ~ 300 nm thick Zr-Si-N coatings with either 2D or 3D interface geometry: 1) Zr-Si-N nanocomposites and 2) ZrN/SiNx nanoscale multilayers. Both types of films were prepared by reactive magnetron sputter-deposition on Si wafers under Ar + N2 plasma discharges. Zr-Si-N films were deposited by co-sputtering from Zr and Si targets at substrate temperature Tdep of 600 °C, with Si content ranging from 0 to 22.1 at.%, while ZrN/SiNx multilayers with ZrN (resp. SiNx) layer thickness varying from 2 to 40 nm (resp. 0.4 to 20 nm) were synthesized by sequential sputtering from elemental Zr and Si3N4 targets at Tdep = 300 °C. According to transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis the microstructure of Zr-Si-N films changes from dual-phase nanocomposite structure, consisting of ZrN nanograins (4–7 nm) surrounded by an amorphous tissue, towards X-ray amorphous with increasing Si content. The multilayered films consist of nanocrystalline (002)-oriented ZrN and amorphous SiNx layers. The structural evolution has been investigated by XRD after vacuum annealing at 1000 °C, while the oxidation resistance under air was studied using in situ XRD in the temperature range from 400 to 950 °C, as well as by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and wavelength dispersive X-ray spectrometry (WDS) after air annealing procedure. While the reference ZrN film starts to oxidize at Tox. = 550 °C, a much higher oxidation resistance is found for multilayered films, till Tox. = 860–950 °C for ZrN/SiNx coatings with the elementary layer thickness ratio of 5 nm/10 nm, 3 nm/5 nm and 2 nm/5 nm. ZrSiN nanocomposites exhibit an improved oxidation resistance with increasing Si content compared to binary ZrN compound, but their stability is worst comparatively to the multilayers case.

Thermal stability and oxidation resistance of ZrSiN nanocomposite and ZrN/SiNx multilayered coatings: A comparative study

Elastic properties of α- and β-tantalum thin films

Thermoelectric properties of chromium nitride (CrN)-based films grown on c-plane sapphire by dc reactive magnetron sputtering were investigated. In this work, aluminum doping was introduced in CrN ...

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.7567/APEX.11.051003/pdf

P-type Al-doped Cr-deficient CrN thin films for thermoelectrics

An experimental setup designed for in situ electrical resistance measurement during thin film growth is described. The custom-built sample holder with a four-point probe arrangement can be loaded into a high-vacuum magnetron sputter-deposition chamber through a load-lock transfer system, allowing measurements on series of samples without venting the main chamber. Electrical contact is ensured with circular copper tracks inserted in a Teflon plate on a mounting holder station inside the deposition chamber. This configuration creates the possibility to measure thickness-dependent electrical resistance changes with sub-monolayer resolution and is compatible with use of sample rotation during growth. Examples are presented for metallic films with high adatom mobility growing in a Volmer-Weber mode (Ag and Pd) as well as for refractory metal (Mo) with low adatom mobility. Evidence for an amorphous-to-crystalline phase transition at a film thickness of 2.6 nm is reported during growth of Mo on an amorphous Si underlayer, supporting previous findings based on in situ wafer curvature measurements.

A load-lock compatible system for in situ electrical resistivity measurements during thin film growth

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Y. Diot

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

A load-lock compatible system for in situ electrical resistivity measurements during thin film growth