Influence of the sputtering reactive gas on the oxide and oxynitride Lasingle bondTisingle bondOsingle bondN deposition by RF magnetron sputtering

Perovskite Lasingle bondTisingle bondOsingle bondN thin films have been grown by radio frequency magnetron sputtering from a LaTiO2N target. With a very low base pressure in the deposition chamber, two types of films can be obtained: colored oxynitride LaTiO2N films when nitrogen gas is introduced during sputtering or black N-doped LaTiO3 films when deposition is performed in pure argon. On SrTiO3 (0 0 1) substrate heated at 750 °C, LaTiO2N films are epitaxially grown, while N:LaTiO3 films are poorly crystallized. With a higher base pressure in the deposition chamber, transparent La2Ti2O7 films are produced. They are (0 1 2) textured on (0 0 1) SrTiO3 substrate. As observed during the reactive sputtering of metallic targets, the evolution of the deposition rate and the nitrogen content in films according to the N2 percentage in the plasma is abrupt.