Structural, surface, optical and mechanical properties of Zn3N2 thin films prepared by sputtering deposition

Zinc nitride and zinc oxide can have wide range applications owing to their band-gap changes and controlling capability of n-type to p-type behavior by impurity doping. Thus, zinc oxy-nitrides can be utilized to design novel photonic devices such as solar cells, UV-Visible devices, and light emitting diodes. In this paper, feasibility of tuning the optical and electronic properties of zinc oxynitride thin films in an rf magnetron sputtering deposition. It was found that the change of gas composition such as Ar: N-2: O-2 can change the properties of zinc nitride films for a wide range. The absorption coefficient of zinc nitride films were larger i\than zinc oxide thin films in low photon energy range, in particular visible region of the spectrum. These results indicated that the zinc nitride may find suitable applications in solar cells and photonic devices.