Residual stress and the effect of implanted argon in films of zirconium nitride made by physical vapor deposition

Abstract

Zirconium nitride films made by reactive cathodic arc evaporation at high bias have been dual energy ion implanted with argon. It is found that the x‐ray elastic constants of the unimplanted films differ from those measured under simple biaxial compressive elastic stress conditions. The effect of 1% argon implantation is to reduce both the lattice parameters and the compressive residual stress. It is considered that the argon resides on substitutional lattice sites following a softening of the implanted layers caused by the energy accompanying the implantation process. As the amount of argon implanted is increased (6% or 12%), the lattice continues to contract, but less rapidly, and the residual stress is hardly affected. It is suggested that the lattice softening continues and is accompanied by precipitation of the argon as bubbles.