Compositional effects on the electrical properties of extremely disordered molybdenum oxynitrides thin films

Abstract Molybdenum oxynitride (MoNxOy) thin films were grown by reactive sputtering on Si (100) substrates at room temperature. The partial pressure of Ar was fixed at 90 %, and the remaining 10 % was adjusted with mixtures N2:O2 (varying from pure N2 to pure O2). The electrical properties of the films depend on the chemical composition. Thin films grown using mixtures up to 2 % O2 have γ-Mo2N phase and display superconductivity. The superconducting critical temperature Tc reduces from ∼ 6.8 K to below 3.0 K as the oxygen increases. On the other hand, the films are mostly amorphous for gas mixtures above 2 % O2. The electrical conductivity shows a semiconductor-like behavior well described by variable-range hopping conduction. The analysis of the optical properties reveals that the samples do not have a defined semiconductor bandgap, indicating that the high structural disorder produces electron excitation for a wide range of energies.