Electrical Resistivity of CrN Thin Films

The work is focused on the measurements of electrical resistivity of CrN thin films deposited on glass substrates by DC-magnetron sputtering in Ar+N-2 atmosphere. The studied samples reveal semiconducting behaviour of electrical resistivity in the whole range of tested preparation parameters (such as pressure and composition of Ar-N-2 mixture), whereas the electrical transport regime is strongly influenced by parameters of preparation. Numerical analysis of the experimental data showed that electrical transport can be adequately described in terms of variable-range hopping conduction in selected temperature intervals. Moreover, S-shaped anomaly in rho(T) dependence, being expected to be a consequence of phase transition to a low-temperature antiferromagnetic orthorhombic phase, has been observed for sample with the highest concentration of N-2 in the temperature interval of 220-250 K. The obtained results indicate that technology processes typically used for preparation of CrN coatings represent a promising potential to develop also high sensitivity cryogenic sensors for high magnetic fields applications.