Electronic structure of insulating zirconium nitride

Abstract
The electronic structure of Zr3 N4, grown by low-energy (0.25 keV) N2+ 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 Zr3 N4 as well as the metal-insulator phase transition in ZrNx when x≊1.33.