Crucial role of reactive pulse-gas on a sputtered Zn3N2 thin film formation

Herein, we demonstrate a powerful technique, known as reactive gas-timing (RGT) rf magnetron sputtering, to fabricate high quality Zn3N2 thin films at room temperature without applying any additional energy sources. A single phase of Zn3N2 film formation can only be obtained when a reactive pulse-gas of N2 is utilized. We find that selecting a small atomic mass of sputtered reactive gas coupled with the pulse-gas technique is very crucial to adjust the number of sputtered atoms obtained from the target and enrich the forming energy of the sputtered Zn3N2 films during the deposition process. Our results highlight that the RGT technique is a promising method to fabricate high quality sputtered compound thin films that can be applied in flexible devices. A simplified model of the materials system at the surface region of the de-nitride Zn3N2 during ion bombardment is also presented.