Molybdenum Nitride Films: Crystal Structures, Synthesis, Mechanical, Electrical and Some Other Properties

Among transition metal nitrides, molybdenum nitrides have been much lessstudied even though their mechanical properties as well as their electrical and catalyticproperties make them very attractive for many applications. The δ-MoN phase of hexagonalstructure is a potential candidate for an ultra-incompressible and hard material and can becompared with c-BN and diamond. The predicted superconducting temperature of themetastable MoN phase of NaCl-B1-type cubic structure is the highest of all refractorycarbides and nitrides. The composition of molybdenum nitride films as well as the structuresand properties depend on the parameters of the process used to deposit the films. They arealso strongly correlated to the electronic structure and chemical bonding. An unusual mixtureof metallic, covalent and ionic bonding is found in the stoichiometric compounds.