Influence of air oxidation on the properties of decorative NbOxNy coatings prepared by reactive gas pulsing

In this work the oxidation resistance of DC reactive sputtered niobium oxynitrides and its influence on the properties of the films are studied. The depositions have been carried out by DC magnetron sputtering with a reactive gas pulsing process. The nitrogen flow was kept constant and the oxygen flow was pulsed. Pulse durations of 10 s produced multilayer coatings with a period of λ=10 nm. Three sets of films with increasing duty cycle (=on-time of high oxygen flow/pulse duration) have been deposited. The films were subsequently annealed in air at 400, 500 and 600 °C, respectively.