Soheil Karimi Aghda

1 Introduction Transition metal nitrides are widely used as protective, functional, or decorative thin films due to the mixture of covalent, ionic, and metallic bonds [1]. Well-studied examples are TiN as well as VN, which exhibit a face-centered cubic crystal structure (NaCl prototype, space group Fm 3 ¯ $\bar 3$ m).

Sputter Deposition Simulation For each sputter deposition simulation of metal nitride onto PC, the bond formation at the interface is investigated after the deposition of 30 atoms. The plan views of the PC surface and interfaces after the sputter deposition simulations are shown in Figure 2a–d. Comparing the different nitrides, the simulations reveal significant differences regarding the reactivity of the atoms and the resulting interface formation.