Extraordinary oxidation behavior of W-Zr thin-film metallic glasses: A route for tailoring functional properties of W-Zr-O films

TL;DR

This study investigates how controlled oxidation of W-Zr thin-film metallic glasses transforms their structure and properties, enabling tailored electrical, optical, and mechanical functionalities for advanced applications.

Contribution

It reveals a novel oxidation mechanism that forms amorphous W-Zr-O films without surface oxide layers, allowing property tuning through oxygen incorporation.

Findings

Oxidation leads to amorphous W-Zr-O films with substoichiometric compositions.

Mechanical hardness increases up to 17.5 GPa with oxygen saturation.

Electrical and optical properties are precisely tuned by oxygen content.

Abstract

The oxidation behavior of W-Zr thin-film metallic glasses (TFMGs) with 32, 48 and 61 at.% Zr, prepared by dc magnetron co-sputtering, was comprehensively studied after annealing in synthetic air. The study focuses on the effect of the annealing temperature (up to 600{\deg}C) on the oxidation process, oxygen saturation, structure evolution, and their subsequent impact on electrical, optical and mechanical properties. The findings reveal that controlled oxidation transforms W-Zr TFMGs into amorphous ceramic W-Zr-O films with substoichiometric compositions. This is a consequence of an oxidation process that does not proceed through the formation of a stoichiometric oxide layer on the surface of W-Zr TFMGs, acting as a diffusion barrier against fast oxidation, but leads to a gradual incorporation of oxygen across the film volume due to thermodynamics factors. Higher Zr content accelerates the oxygen incorporation and its depth uniformity in the films. As a result, the mechanical properties are significantly enhanced achieving hardness values of up to 17.5 GPa at approximately 50% oxygen saturation. Simultaneously, the electrical and optical properties are finely tuned with the resistivity and the extinction coefficient (measured at 550 nm) ranging from 1.7 to 95.7x10-4 Ohm.cm and 0.28 to 1.06, respectively.