Study on Nano-(Ti, Zr)N Film by Atomic Force Microscopy

The golden-like (Ti, Zr)N film with nanometer level, which has higher rigidity and better corrosion resistance than TiN film, was deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering on slides and Al substrates. The crystalline phase was analyzed by XRD, morphology and electronic structures were detected by atomic force microscopy (AFM) on AFM.IPC-208B developed by Chongqing University. The results of XRD show that the (Ti, Zr)N film is polycrystalline and consists of mixed crystal of TiN and ZrN phase. We obtained nano-morphology and scanning tunnel spectrum (STS) on AFM.IPC-208B. AFM images indicate that the surface of the film is smooth, and the microstructure of the film is dense and compact without loosely attached large particles. The STS show that Zr-doping didn't change the position and band-gap of energy level, only two new energy levels, Eg = 0.33 eV and Eg = 0.42 eV appearing, therefore the color of (Ti, Zr)N film remains golden-like