Development of preferred orientation in polycrystalline TiN layers grown by ultrahigh vacuum reactive magnetron sputtering
- Thin Film Division, Physics Department, Linkoeping University, S-581 83 Linkoeping (Sweden)
- Department of Materials Science, the Coordinated Science Laboratory, and the Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801 (United States)
The preferred orientation of polycrystalline TiN films grown by ultrahigh-vacuum reactive-magnetron sputter deposition on amorphous SiO{sub 2} at 350 {degree}C in pure N{sub 2} discharges was controllably varied from (111) to completely (002) by varying the incident ion/metal flux ratio {ital J}{sub {ital i}}/{ital J}{sub Ti} from 1 to {ge}5 with the N{sup +}{sub 2} ion energy {ital E}{sub {ital i}} maintained constant at {congruent}20 eV ({congruent}10 eV per incident accelerated N). All samples were slightly over-stoichiometric with N/Ti=1.02{plus_minus}0.03. Films deposited with {ital J}{sub {ital i}}/{ital J}{sub Ti}=1 initially exhibit a mixed texture with competitive columnar growth which slowly evolves into a nearly complete (111) texture at film thicknesses greater than 1 {mu}m. However, films grown with {ital J}{sub {ital i}}/{ital J}{sub Ti}{ge}5 exhibit an essentially complete (002) preferred orientation from the earliest observable stages. The normalized XRD (002) intensity ratio in thick layers increased from {congruent}0 to 1 as {ital J}{sub {ital i}}/{ital J}{sub Ti} was varied from 1 to {ge}5. Both (111) and (001) interplanar spacings remained constant as a function of film thickness yielding a lattice constant of 0.4240{plus_minus}0.0005 nm, equal to that of unstrained bulk TiN. Contrary to previous models, the present results establish that TiN preferred orientation can be controlled without introducing large in-plane compressive stress and/or changes in the strain energy as a function of layer thickness. {copyright} {ital 1995} {ital American} {ital Institute} {ital of} {ital Physics}.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76ER01198
- OSTI ID:
- 124278
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 67, Issue 20; Other Information: PBD: 13 Nov 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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