Improved ambient stability of thermally annealed zinc nitride thin films
Type
ArticleKAUST Department
Cleanroom OperationsNanofabrication Core Lab
Date
2020-03-13Online Publication Date
2020-03-13Print Publication Date
2020-03-01Submitted Date
2020-01-02Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/662250
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Zinc nitride films are known to readily oxidize in an ambient atmosphere, forming a ZnO/Zn(OH)2 medium. We report that post-growth thermal annealing significantly improves the stability of zinc nitride with a three-order magnitude increase in degradation time from a few days in un-annealed films to several years after annealing. A degradation study was performed on samples annealed under a flow of nitrogen at 200–400 °C, which showed that the stability of the films depends strongly on the annealing temperature. We propose a mechanism for this improvement, which involves a stabilization of the native oxide layer that forms on the surface of zinc nitride films after exposure to ambient conditions. The result holds significant promise for the use of zinc nitride in devices where operational stability is a critical factor in applications.Citation
Trapalis, A., Farrer, I., Kennedy, K., Kean, A., Sharman, J., & Heffernan, J. (2020). Improved ambient stability of thermally annealed zinc nitride thin films. AIP Advances, 10(3), 035018. doi:10.1063/1.5144054Sponsors
The authors acknowledge funding from the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Science Research Council; Grant No. EP/M507611/1) and Johnson Matthey PLC (Award No. 14550005). The financial support from these parties is highly appreciated.Publisher
AIP PublishingJournal
AIP AdvancesAdditional Links
http://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5144054ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1063/1.5144054
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