Abstract We report on the synthesis and characterization of nanocrystalline δ-MoN by crystallization of amorphous thin films grown on (100) Si by reactive sputtering at room temperature. Films with chemical… Click to show full abstract
Abstract We report on the synthesis and characterization of nanocrystalline δ-MoN by crystallization of amorphous thin films grown on (100) Si by reactive sputtering at room temperature. Films with chemical composition MoN were grown using a deposition pressure of 5mTorr with a reactive mixture of Ar/(Ar + N 2 ) = 0.5. The as-grown films display mostly amorphous structure. Nanocrystalline δ-MoN phase is obtained after annealing at temperatures above 600 °C. The superconducting critical temperature T c depends on film thickness. Thick films (170 nm) annealed at 700 °C for 30 min display a T c = 11.2 K (close to the one reported for bulk specimens: 13 K), which is gradually suppressed to 7.2 K for 40 nm thick δ-MoN films. Our results provide a simple method to synthesize superconducting nitride thin films on silicon wafers with T c above the ones observed for conventional superconductors such as Nb.
               
Click one of the above tabs to view related content.