Structural, optical and electrical properties of WOxNy films deposited by reactive dual magnetron sputtering

Thin films of tungsten oxynitrides were prepared by dual magnetron sputtering of tungsten using argon/oxygen/nitrogen gas mixtures with various nitrogen/oxygen ratios. The presence of even relatively small amounts of oxygen led to close-to-stoichiometric WO3, with little incorporation of nitrogen, therefore the films were labeled as WOx(Ny). Oxygen had a great effect not only on the composition but on the structure of WOx(Ny) films, as shown by Rutherford backscattering and X-ray diffraction, respectively. Significant incorporation of nitrogen occurred only when the nitrogen partial pressure exceeded 89% of the total reactive gas pressure. Sharp changes in the stoichiometry, deposition rate, room temperature resistivity, electrical activation energy and optical band gap were observed when the nitrogen/oxygen ratio was high. The deposition rate increased from 0.31 to 0.89 nm/s, the room temperature resistivity decreased from 1.65 × 108 to 1.82 × 10− 2 Ω cm, the electrical activation energy decreased from 0.97 to 0.067 eV, and the optical band gap decreased from 3.19 to 2.94 eV upon nitrogen incorporation into the films. WOx(Ny) films were highly transparent as long as the nitrogen incorporation was low, and were brownish (absorbing) and partially reflecting as nitrogen incorporation became significant.