Removal of oxide ions from ruthenium oxide films by pill injection of nitrogen

We used the Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation (PIII) technique to implant nitrogen into the rutile RuO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> ] as-deposited film structure. We investigated the crystallographic structure of deposited and implanted RuO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> ] film material by XRD measurements. XPS deep profile measurements showed compositional changes due to nitrogen implantation. We measured colour changes and nano-hardness of as-deposited films as , well as the films after implantation with nitrogen. We found changes in the film material after PIII process towards the metallic based Ru structure with decreasing nano-hardness along with changes in the colour properties of Ru films. Process can be use for removal of oxide ions from the RuO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> ] thin film structure,