Electrical properties and thermal stability of Pd-doped copper nitride films

Pd-doped copper nitride films with Pd concentrations up to 5.6 at. % were successfully synthesized by reactive magnetron sputtering of metal targets. Higher concentration of Pd (>5.6 at. %) would deteriorate the quality of the deposits. XPS and XRD data strongly suggest that Pd atoms occupy the centers of the Cu3N unit cells rather than simply substituting for the Cu atoms. A reduction in the electrical resistivity by three orders of magnitude was observed when the Pd concentration increases from zero to 5.6 at. %. All the deposits with the Pd concentration up to 5.6 at. % exhibit n-typed conductivity behavior. The corresponding carrier concentrations increase by four orders of magnitude from 10(17) to 10(21) cm(-3). Compared with the undoped copper nitride films, a weakly Pd-doped Cu3N films possess fine thermal stability in vacuum. And the decomposition product after annealing at 450 degrees C exhibits a good metallic behavior, indicating that it qualifies the fabrication of conduct wires or metallic structures for the promising applications. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4788905]