Gold films containing gold nitride have been produced by nitrogen reactive ion sputtering and characterized by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. N1s core-level spectra from the films show a peak at 397.0 +/- 0.2 eV attributed to gold nitride species. The intensity of the nitride peak decays with measurement time, demonstrating that this material decomposes under X-ray irradiation. Atomic force microscopy shows that the nitride containing films are also sensitive to electron beam irradiation, indicating that X-ray or electron beam lithography may be used to directly write patterns on a gold nitride surface. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.