A N-rich Zr-N film with Th3P4 structure (denoted as c-Zr3N4) was grown on Si and glass substrate by radio frequency (rf) magnetron sputtering technique with high pure Zr as target and high pure N-2 as sputtering gas. The crystal structure and composition of the c-Zr3N4 was characterized by X-ray diffractometry, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The lattice constant of the c-Zr3N4 was measured to be about 0.674 nm. Hall measurement indicates that the c-Zr3N4 compound is a p-type semiconductor with resistivity of 2.121 x 10(4) V cm, carrier concentration of 9 x 10(14) cm (3) and Hall mobility of 0.34 cm(2)/(V s). Its bandgap was evaluated by absorption spectroscopy to be about 2.8 eV. A mechanism of formation of the c-Zr3N4 compound was suggested in the present work. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.