Modification of optical properties in ultrathin ALD-grown NbN layers using oxygen plasma treatment
Abstract
NbN thin films with a nominal thickness of 10 nm were grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on Al2O3-buffered Si substrates and treated with oxygen plasma for 0 s (untreated), 20 s, 40 s, and 60 s to investigate oxygen-induced changes in their optical properties. Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) measurements were performed before and after oxygen plasma treatment over the ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared (1.24-6.20 eV) and infrared (0.041-0.827 eV) spectral ranges. Film thickness determined by X-ray reflectivity (XRR) was used as a fixed parameter in the optical modeling to extract the dielectric function, optical constants, and effective free-carrier concentration. We observed the emergence of a distinct absorption feature near 4.9 eV following oxygen plasma treatment, consistent with the oxidation of the NbN surface and the resulting change in its optical properties. Increasing the treatment time from 0 to 60 s reduced the effective carrier concentration from 1.20 × 1022 to 1.03 × 1022 cm−3 and the effective carrier mobility from 2.44 to 2.27 cm2 V−1 s−1. The obtained results provide a basis for understanding the effects of oxygen plasma treatment on NbN thin films.
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BibTeX
@misc{teke2026modification,
title = {{Modification of optical properties in ultrathin ALD-grown NbN layers using oxygen plasma treatment}},
author = {Mustafa Teke and Nitesh Yerra and Alireza Sadeghi and Mario Ziegler and Detlef Born and Nan Du and Marco Diegel and Uwe Hübner and Sahitya V. Vegesna and Heidemarie Krüger},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.32553},
eprint = {2610.32553},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.32553},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Modification of optical properties in ultrathin ALD-grown NbN layers using oxygen plasma treatment
AU - Mustafa Teke
AU - Nitesh Yerra
AU - Alireza Sadeghi
AU - Mario Ziegler
AU - Detlef Born
AU - Nan Du
AU - Marco Diegel
AU - Uwe Hübner
AU - Sahitya V. Vegesna
AU - Heidemarie Krüger
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/23
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.32553
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.32553
AB - NbN thin films with a nominal thickness of 10 nm were grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on Al_2O_3-buffered Si substrates and treated with oxygen plasma for 0 s (untreated), 20 s, 40 s, and 60 s to investigate oxygen-induced changes in their optical properties. Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) measurements were performed before and after oxygen plasma treatment over the ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared (1.24-6.20 eV) and infrared (0.041-0.827 eV) spectral ranges. Film thickness determined by X-ray reflectivity (XRR) was used as a fixed parameter in the optical modeling to extract the dielectric function, optical constants, and effective free-carrier concentration. We observed the emergence of a distinct absorption feature near 4.9 eV following oxygen plasma treatment, consistent with the oxidation of the NbN surface and the resulting change in its optical properties. Increasing the treatment time from 0 to 60 s reduced the effective carrier concentration from 1.20 × 10^22 to 1.03 × 10^22 cm^−3 and the effective carrier mobility from 2.44 to 2.27 cm^2 V^−1 s^−1. The obtained results provide a basis for understanding the effects of oxygen plasma treatment on NbN thin films.
ER -