Effect of Substrate Bias Voltage on the Physical Properties of Zirconium Nitride (ZrN) Films Deposited by Mid Frequency Reactive Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

Present work involves the preparation of Zirconium Nitride thin films on stainless steel (SS) (304L grade) substrate by reactive cylindrical magnetron sputtering method. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) profile of the ZrN thin films prepared with different bias voltage conforms face centered cubic structure with preferred orientation along the (111) plane at lower bias voltage (100 V) and at higher bias voltage (300 V) the preferred orientation shifted to (220) plane. The influences of bias voltage on the thickness and microhardness ZrN thin films have been studied. ZrN thin film sputtered with 300 V bias voltage shows the maximum reflectance of 90% at a wavelength of 1000 nm. The coated substrates have been found to exhibit improved corrosion resistance compared to the SS plate. The root mean square surface roughness and surface morphology were investigated from 3D atomic force microscope (AFM) images and scanning electron microscope (SEM), which indicate smooth and uniform surface pattern without any pin holes.