A new method of fabricating ceramic thin films called Interface Controlled Vapor Deposition (ICVD) has been developed for the purposes of (1) control of the film's crystallinity and orientation, and (2) low temperature fabrication. The ICVD method makes these capabilities possible by strictly controlling the interface conditions between the substrate and the thin film. As one way to control interface conditions, this work introduces ion beam irradiation during fabrication of the interface modification layer by a vapor deposition process. This method was applied to the fabrication of zirconium nitride (ZrN) film. The ICVD method consists of two steps. In the first step, the modification layer is formed by evaporating zirconium with simultaneous nitrogen ion irradiation. In the second step, evaporation alone is continued in a nitrogen atmosphere in order to deposit a second layer. Using this method, ZrN film with good adherence and crystallinity is fabricated at room temperature, and its crystallinity and orientation can be controlled.
