Electronic structure of insulating zirconium nitride

Abstract

The electronic structure of ${\mathrm{Zr}}_{3}$${\mathrm{N}}_{4}$, grown by low-energy (0.25 keV) ${\mathrm{N}}_{2}^{+}$ implantation of polycrystalline zirconium has been investigated by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Both the valence-band and core-level spectra demonstrate the insulating characteristics of ${\mathrm{Zr}}_{3}$${\mathrm{N}}_{4}$ as well as the metal-insulator phase transition in ${\mathrm{ZrN}}_{\mathit{x}}$ when x\ensuremath{\approxeq}1.33.