Growth and characterization of zinc oxynitride thin films by reactive gas-timing RF magnetron sputtering

Nitrogen-doped zinc oxide (N:ZnO) films on glass substrates have been prepared by the reactive gas-timing rf magnetron sputtering of ZnO targets in a mixture of argon and nitrogen gases. Using this gas-timing technique, N:ZnO films were produced without any substrate heating. The nitrogen partial pressure during the sputtering process was periodically controlled by an on-off sequence. The structural and optical properties of the fabricated films were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and optical absorption spectroscopy, respectively. The nitrogen composition of the N:ZnO films was quantified by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In this study, we focused on investigating the effects of the nitrogen flow rate and the rf power on the structural properties, the nitrogen doping efficiency, and the optical band gap of N:ZnO films. A slight shift in the optical band gap to a higher energy was found when the nitrogen flow rate was increased or when the rf power was decreased. This coincides with an improvement in the crystallinity of the films. Gas-timing rf magnetron sputtering deposition is a simple method of fine-tuning material properties by slight modifications to the existing sputtering technique.