Chandrashekhar P. Savant, et al. “Self-activated epitaxial growth of ScN films from molecular nitrogen at low temperatures” APL Materials 12, 111108 (2024) DOI: 10.1063/5.0222995.
Unlike naturally occurring oxide crystals such as ruby and gemstones, there are no naturally occurring nitride crystals because the triple bond of the nitrogen molecule is one of the strongest bonds in nature. Here, we report that when the transition metal scandium is subjected to molecular nitrogen, it self-catalyzes to break the nitrogen triple bond, forming highly crystalline layers of ScN, a semiconductor. This reaction proceeds even at room temperature, opening a fundamentally new pathway to ultralow-energy synthesis of crystalline nitride semiconductor layers and beyond. We also discovered the scavenging effect of scandium on capturing the residual gas species in the chamber, which could be used as a vacuum sublimation pump to purify/clean the chamber, and to grow thin films.
For more details, please check out: https://doi-org.proxy.library.cornell.edu/10.1063/5.0222995