Synthesis of nanocrystalline d-MoN by thermal annealing of amorphous thin films grown on (100) Si by reactive DC sputtering at room temperature

Abstract

We report on the synthesis and characterization of nanocrystalline delta-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+N2)=0.5. The as-grown films display mostly amorphous structure. Nanocrystalline delta-MoN phase is obtained after annealing at temperatures above 600 {\deg}C. The superconducting critical temperature Tc depends on film thickness. Thick films (170 nm) annealed at 700 {\deg}C for 30 min display a Tc = 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 delta-MoN films. Our results provide a simple method to synthesize superconducting nitride thin films on silicon wafers with Tc above the ones observed for conventional superconductors such as Nb.