Low Temperature Fabrication of ZrN Thin Film using Ion Beam

Zirconium nitride (ZrN) is one of the nitride ceramics which has many excellent properties, such as hardness, high melting point and chemical stability. Zirconium is reactive material, so it is possible to fabricate the ZrN thin film without irradiating the active particle such as nitrogen ion. So the fabrication of the ZrN thin films was attempted by ion beam sputter (IBS) in which Zr was sputtered by Ar ion beam in a nitrogen atmosphere. It was found that the ZrN thin films could be fabricated at room temperature and the crystallinity of these films could be controlled by varying the pressure of nitrogen. Furthermore, to improve the deposition rate and adherence, the fabrication of the ZrN thin films was attempted by ion beam assisted deposition (IAD) method in which the thin films were formed by evaporating Zr under simultaneous nitrogen ion irradiation. Using this method, the ZrN thin films with good adherence were fabricated at the high deposition rate, and the films were also confirmed to be hard ceramic film with a value of 1 600 HV. Also, it was found that the crystallinity of these films could be controlled by the N/Zr arrival ratio.