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The discovery of new functional materials is one of the key challenges inmaterials science. Combinatorial high-throughput approaches using reactivesputtering are commonly employed to screen unexplored phase spaces. Duringreactive combinatorial deposition the process conditions are rarely optimized,which can lead to poor crystallinity of the thin films. In addition, sputteringat shallow deposition angles can lead to off-axis preferential orientation ofthe grains. This can make the results from a conventional structural phasescreening ambiguous. Here we perform a combinatorial screening of the Zn-Ta-Nphase space with the aim to synthesize the novel semiconductor Zn2TaN3. Whilethe results of the XRD phase screening are inconclusive, including chemicalstate analysis mapping in our workflow allows us to see a very cleardiscontinuity in the evolution of the Ta binding environment. This isindicative of the formation of a new ternary phase. In additional experiments,we isolate the material and perform a detailed characterization confirming theformation of single phase WZ-Zn2TaN3. Besides the formation of the new ternarynitride, we map the functional properties of ZnxTa1-xN and report previouslyunreported clean chemical state analysis for Zn3N2, TaN and Zn2TaN3. Overall,the results of this study showcase common challenges in high-throughputmaterials screening and highlight the merit of employing characterizationtechniques sensitive towards changes in the materials' short-range order andchemical state.

Combinatorial Reactive Sputtering with Auger Parameter Analysis Enables Synthesis of Wurtzite Zn2TaN3