Structural and Electronic Properties of Chromium Nitride Thin Films for High Performance Supercapacitor Electrodes*

Chromium nitride (CrN) shows interesting structural, electronic, magnetic, and optical properties, which have been studied for potential applications in spintronics, sensors for electric and magnetic fields at low temperatures, and thermoelectrics^1-3. In this project, a complete set of experiments has been designed to study the electronic properties of CrN thin films grown by reactive radio frequency sputtering. Thin films with different Cr, N atomic ratios and layer thicknesses have been prepared to study their effects on the charge carrier concentration, magnetoresistance, and electrode for supercapacitors. These electrodes show high areal specific capacitance, excellent cycling stability and capacitance retention than the published reports. Variable field Hall Effect setup for studying the carrier concentration. The electrodes were investigated by cyclic voltammetry. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy have been used for studying the stoichiometry. The optical band gap has been measured by recording transmittance spectra of the films.

 

References

1. K. Alam, S. M Disseler, W. D Ratcliff, J. A Borchers, R. Ponce-Perez, G. H. Cocoletzi, N. Takeuchi, A. Foley, A. Richard, D. C. Ingram, and A. R. Smith, Phys. Rev. B 96, 104433 (2017).
   
   K. Alam, K.-Y. Meng, R. Ponce-Pérez, G. H. Cocoletzi, N. Takeuchi, A. Foley, F. Yang, and A. R. Smith, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys 53, 125001 (2020).
   
   K. Alam, M. B. Haider, M. F. Al-Kuhaili, K. A. Ziq, and B. Ul Haq. Ceramics International 48, 17352 (2022).