Investigation of Low Energy Nitrogen Ion Implantation into Gold

Noble metal nitrides have stimulated many theoretical and experimental studies on account of their abnormally high bulk modulus and intriguing electronic properties. Gold surfaces are implanted by the nitrogen ions of low energy in the present work. The surface morphology are observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM).The surface microstructure are studied with X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results of XRD and AFM show weak evidence for the formation of a nano-scale gold nitride. The nitrogen concentration depth profile in gold film has been calculated using a dynamic computer simulation to determine the possible crystal structure of the Au-N system. The mechanisms of gold nitride formation are discussed in the end.