Gold film with gold nitride - A conductor but harder than gold

The formation of surface nitrides on gold films is a particularly attractive proposition, addressing the need to produce harder, but still conductive, gold coatings which reduce wear but avoid the pollution associated with conventional additives. Here we report production of large area gold nitride films on silicon substrates, using reactive ion sputtering and plasma etching, without the need for ultrahigh vacuum. Nanoindentation data show that gold nitride films have a hardness similar to 50% greater than that of pure gold. These results are important for large-scale applications of gold nitride in coatings and electronics. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.