Effect of Substrate Bias Voltage on the Growth of Chromium Nitride Films

Abstract Chromium nitride (CrN) films were deposited on silicon substrate by RF magnetron sputtering assisted by inductive coupled nitrogen plasma without intentional substrate heating. Films were deposited with different levels of bombarding energy by nitrogen ions (N+) to investigate the influence of substrate bias voltage (Vb) on the growth of CrN thin films. XRD spectra showed that the crystallographic structure of CrN films was strongly affected by substrate bias voltage. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) results showed that surface roughness and grain size of the CrN films varied significantly with bias voltage. For –80 Vb depositions, the CrN films showed bigger grain sizes than those of other bias voltage conditions. The lowest surface roughness of 0.15 nm was obtained from the CrN films deposited at –130 Vb. Key words Chromium nitride; Inductive coupled plasma (ICP); Substrate bias; AFM; XRD. 1