Astract
Raman spectroscopy has been used as a local probe to characterise the structural evolution of magnetron-sputtered decorative zirconium oxynitride ZrOxNy films which result from as increse of reactive gas flow in the deposition. The line shapes, the frequency position and widths of the Raman bands show a systematic change as a function of reactive gas flow (a mixture of both oxygen and nitrogen). The as-deposited zirconium nitride film presents a Raman spectrum with the typical broadened bands, due to the disorder induced by N vacancies. The recorded Raman spectrum of the zirconium oxide film is typical of the monoclinic phase of ZrO2, which is revealed also by X-ray diffraction . Raman spectra of zirconium oxynitride thin films present changes, which are found to be closely related with the oxygen content in films and the subsequent structural changes