Study of the structural and electrical properties of silicon ion irradiated zirconium nitride thin films.

In this work, modification in structural and electrical properties of zirconium nitride (ZrN) thin films induced by silicon-ion irradiation is studied. ZrN thin films are grown on glass substrate over Zirconium (Zr) layer using cathodic arc evaporation method. The samples of the film are irradiated with silicon ions of energy 2.08 MeV at different fluences ranging from 5 × 1 0 1 3 ions/cm − 2 to 5 × 1 0 1 5 ions/cm − 2 . The structural and electrical properties of the prepared films are investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy and four-point probe method. XRD analysis shows significant shift in the peak corresponding to (111) crystallographic plane of ZrN at low fluence (5 × 1 0 1 3 ions/cm − 2 ) while modest peak shift at high fluence rate (5 × 1 0 1 5 ions/cm − 2 ) is observed. Under the electrical properties point of view, it is observed that the decrease in resistivity is small at high ion fluence as compared to that at low ion fluence. At highest fluence of 5 × 1 0 1 5 ions/cm − 2 , resistivity of the irradiated sample approaches the resistivity of the un-irradiated sample indicating very small changes in structure at very high dose irradiance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]