Abstract: In this work, zirconium nitride (ZrN) films with high crystalline quality were deposited on Si (111) substrates by direct current magnetron reactive sputtering. The effect of deposition time on the structural property, surface morphology and optical property of the ZrN films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The results confirm that all the ZrN films have a cubic, NaCl-type crystal structure with (111) single orientation and the crystalline quality of the films increase with the increasing deposition time. The surface morphology, grain size and surface roughness of ZrN films change with deposition time. A dense columnar structure with triangular pyramid-shaped grains is observed when the deposition time increased to 45 min. Subsequently, the growth mechanism of ZrN films was explained using Extend Structure Zone Model. Finally, the reflection characteristics of ZrN films were studied. It is found that the reflectivity decrease when the film has a triangular pyramid texture, compared with that of none texture counterparts. Moreover, with increasing deposition time to 45 min, there are oscillations in the reflectance spectrum with the wavelength range of 300~800 nm, which did not occur in the films with shorter deposition time. The correlations between growth conditions, crystal structure, microstructure as well as optical properties, could provide an important reference value for optimum conditions to produce ZrN films for utilization in devices applications.

Key words: zirconium nitride, reactive magnetron sputtering, single oriented, surface morphology, columnar growth, optical property