Electrical Resistivity of CrN Thin Films

The work is focused on the measurements of electrical resistivity of CrN thin films deposited on glass substrates by DC-magnetron sputtering in Ar+N2 atmosphere. The studied samples reveal semiconducting behaviour of electrical resistivity in the whole range of tested preparation parameters (such as pressure and composition of Ar-N2 mixture), whereas the electrical transport regime is strongly influenced by parameters of preparation. Numerical analysis of the experimental data showed that electrical transport can be adequately described in terms of variable-range hopping conduction in selected temperature intervals. Moreover, S-shaped anomaly in ρ(T) dependence, being expected to be a consequence of phase transition to a low-temperature antiferromagnetic orthorhombic phase, has been observed for sample with the highest concentration of N2 in the temperature interval of 220250 K. The obtained results indicate that technology processes typically used for preparation of CrN coatings represent a promising potential to develop also high sensitivity cryogenic sensors for high magnetic fields applications