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This research aims to fabricate chiral zirconium nitride thin films and assess their optical activity.

January 6, 2026Advanced Photonics Research0 citationsOpen Access

Chiral Zirconium Nitride Thin Films with Strong Optical Activity in the Ultraviolet Interband Region

LDLuke C. DavenportOhio University OAOscar Avalos‐OvandoUniversity of North Carolina at Greensboro AGAlexander O. GovorovCenter for Nanoscale Science and Technology

Key Points

This research aims to fabricate chiral zirconium nitride thin films and assess their optical activity.
Fabricated films using glancing angle deposition with triangular and L-shaped geometries on quartz substrates.
Conducted circular dichroism spectroscopy to analyze optical properties of the films.
Utilized X-ray diffraction to study crystallinity in the films after varying deposition conditions.
Performed finite element simulations to replicate circular dichroism features observed in the experimental data.
Circular dichroism confirmed the optical chirality of all films, showing mirror image CD spectra.
A strong peak around 280 nm was consistently observed in all films, indicating optical activity.
Increasing deposition time led to a redshift in the CD peak, suggesting tunable optical responses.

Abstract

Using glancing angle deposition (GLAD), this study fabricated chiral zirconium nitride structures with triangular and L‐shaped geometries on quartz substrates with thicknesses between 172 and 344 nm. Some films are sputtered at room temperature while others were heated to 300 °C during deposition. Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy confirmed optical chirality in all GLAD fabricated films, with clockwise and counterclockwise deposited films exhibiting mirror image CD spectra. A single peak around 280 nm is observed for all films deposited at glancing incidence. Additionally, increasing the deposition time per triangular side redshifts the CD peak, demonstrating tunability of the optical response. X‐ray diffraction reveals that heating induces crystallinity into the films with a Zr 3 N 4 (011) peak at 28.5°, Zr 3 N 4 (111) peak at 30.6°, and a ZrN (200) peak at 39.8°. SEM confirms tilted columnar growth in both heated and unheated films. Finite element simulations using COMSOL Multiphysics reproduce the main CD features, including a strong peak at ≈280 nm.

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