Influence of the sputtering reactive gas on the oxide and oxynitride LaTiON deposition by RF magnetron sputtering

Abstract Perovskite La Ti O N thin films have been grown by radio frequency magnetron sputtering from a LaTiO 2 N target. With a very low base pressure in the deposition chamber, two types of films can be obtained: colored oxynitride LaTiO 2 N films when nitrogen gas is introduced during sputtering or black N-doped LaTiO 3 films when deposition is performed in pure argon. On SrTiO 3 (0 0 1) substrate heated at 750 °C, LaTiO 2 N films are epitaxially grown, while N:LaTiO 3 films are poorly crystallized. With a higher base pressure in the deposition chamber, transparent La 2 Ti 2 O 7 films are produced. They are (0 1 2) textured on (0 0 1) SrTiO 3 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 N 2 percentage in the plasma is abrupt.