The influence of various sputtering parameters on structural, wettability and optical properties of Zr2ON2 thin films

• Study of structural, wettability and optical properties of zirconium oxynitride films.
• Effect of parameters such as N2 flow rate, deposition time and sputtering pressure.
• Such sputtering parameter studies using helium as inert gas is rare in literature.
• The films are hydrophobic and can have potential use as water repellent surfaces.
• The tailoring of optical properties like transmission, refractive index and band gap.

Zirconium oxynitride films were deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering using helium as inert gas and oxygen and nitrogen as reactive gases. The effect of various sputtering parameters such as nitrogen flow rate, deposition time and sputtering pressure on structural, wettability and optical properties of zirconium oxynitride films is investigated. The X-ray diffraction graphs shows formation of well crystalline gamma phase of zirconium oxynitride with various textures at different nitrogen flow rate and deposition time, whereas variation of sputtering pressure shows decline in evolution of different textures for gamma phase of zirconium oxynitride and evolution of zirconia phase. The wettability determined by contact angle measuring system indicates that zirconium oxynitride films are hydrophobic. The increase in surface energies was observed with decline in contact angle values. The decline in band gap values was observed for zirconium oxynitride films deposited at various nitrogen flow rate (3.22–2.96 eV) and deposition time (2.91–2.77 eV).