Structure and optical properties of ScN thin films

More than 100 ScN films ranging from 50 to 1000 nm thickness on quartz, silicon and sapphire substrates were grown by evaporation of Sc in the beam of an atomic nitrogen source and reactive sputtering from a Sc-metal target in a pure nitrogen atmosphere. ScN is the semiconductor. The refractive index in the infrared is n=2.46±0.15 for thin film ScN and the bandgap is 2.26 eV.