Synthesis of Highly Pure and Hydrophilic Metal-Nitride Thin Films Using Reactive High-Frequency Magnetron Sputtering

The increasingly widespread innovation of nanotechnology significantly affects our society, especially its contribution to economies. Nanosized metal nitrides possess interesting properties (e.g., highly corrosive resistant, good electrical properties, great metallic conductivity, etc.) that are capitalized, resulting in numerous applications. The thin film preparation procedure is an important step that determines the film's characteristics, such as crystallographic orientation. Hence, this study pursues the synthesis of metal-nitride thin films and characterizes their properties for future possible applications. Vanadium nitride (VN) and aluminum nitride (AlN) were synthesized and deposited on silicon substrates via high-frequency magnetron sputtering. The crystalline structure of the thin films was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the wettability was determined using static contact angle measurement. Accordingly, the (311) phase of vanadium nitride and the (100) and (004) phases of aluminum nitride were observed with no impurities. Meanwhile, the static water contact angle indicated a hydrophilic property in both thin-film samples, as the values were observed to be less than 90°.