Microstructural investigations of 800 keV Ar ions irradiated nanocrystalline ZrN thin films

ABSTRACT

The effect of 800 keV Ar ion irradiation on the microstructure and composition of ZrN films grown by pulsed laser deposition technique was investigated. Grazing incidence and symmetrical X-ray diffraction showed films were nanostructured, with grain size around 13 nm and (111) textured. X-ray reflectivity investigations showed a 0.7% decrease of films density after irradiation with a fluence of 1 × 10¹⁴ cm⁻² and no further decreased for a fluence of 1 × 10¹⁵ cm⁻². An increase of the lattice parameter and a decrease of grain size after irradiation with a fluence of 1 × 10¹⁴ cm⁻² was observed and almost no change after irradiation with a fluence of 1 × 10¹⁵ cm^–2. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy investigations did not detect changes in the composition of films after irradiation. Transmission electron microscopy studies confirmed that the films were nanocrystalline, compact, with columnar crystallites without pores or voids. After irradiation, the microstructure was not affected and no other phases appeared.

KEYWORDS:

• ZrN
• nanocrystalline thin films
• pulsed laser deposition
• Ar ion irradiation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

B. S. Vasile http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2267-6453

V. Craciun http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1458-8653

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by projects ROSA [grant number STAR 161/2017], IFA [grant number ELI-17/2017] and INFLPR-NUCLEU [grant number PN-2019].