Metal-insulator transition in zirconium oxynitride films

The zirconium oxynitride (ZrNxOy) thin films were deposited on the SiO2/Si substrate via direct current reactive magnetron sputtering, by tuning the reactive gas ratio r (the volume ratio between 1% O2+99% N2 and Ar) from 5.0% to 20.0%. The temperature dependence of resistivity reveals that the ZrNxOy films for r 10.0% show the metallic transport behaviors, and the remarkable semiconductor transport features are presented while r 15.0%. The metal-insulator transition is thus observed in the ZrNxOy films by tuning r. This result provides insight into the design and control of the electrical properties in ZrNxOy-based devices.