Nano-scale morphology and crystallography of laser-deposited TiN thin films

Abstract

Titanium nitride (TIN) thin films were deposited on hydrogen-terminated silicon (100) substrates by pulsed laser ablation of a ceramic TiN target (purity: 99.9%). The crystallography and properties of the thin films are related to the substrate temperature. In the investigation, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and nanoindentation were used. Nano-scale morphology of the thin films deposited at 600 °C was observed by STM using a platinum tip. The STM image showed that the TiN embryos have a uniform size of approximately 17 nm and grow into large clusters. The films grown at 600 °C have a full-width at half maximum of the TiN (200) peak in the XRD spectrum close to 0.50°. The hardness of the thin films deposited at 600 °C was as high as 26 GPa.