Electrical and optical properties of AlNxOy thin films prepared by reactive DC magnetron sputtering

Abstract

The addition of oxygen and nitrogen to a growing Al film can give rise to an oxynitride (AlNxOy) film with a wide range of different properties, that can be tailored between those of the pure Al and those of AlNx and AlOy, In this work, a set of films of AlNxOy and two sets of the binary systems, AlNx and AlOy, were produced using reactive DC magnetron sputtering. The discharge characteristics, composition, structure, electrical and optical properties were studied, in order to test whether the oxynitride films have an unique behaviour or are simply a transition between AlNx and AlOy.