Intrinsic anomalous surface roughening of TiN films deposited by reactive sputtering

Journal Article · Sun Jan 15 04:00:00 EST 2006 · Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVB.73.0· OSTI ID:20787858

Auger, M A ^[1]; Vazquez, L; Sanchez, O ^[1]; Cuerno, R ^[2]; Castro, M ^[3]; Jergel, M ^[4]

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1. Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid-CSIC, C-Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz 3, E-28049 Cantoblanco, Madrid (Spain)
2. Departamento de Matematicas y Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Avenida de la Universidad 30, E-28911, Leganes, Madrid (Spain)
3. Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos y Grupo de Dinamica No Lineal, Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingenieria (ICAI), Universidad Pontificia Comillas de Madrid, E-28015, Madrid (Spain)
4. Institute of Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 9, 845 11 Bratislava 45 (Slovakia)

We study surface kinetic roughening of TiN films grown on Si(100) substrates by dc reactive sputtering. The surface morphology of films deposited for different growth times under the same experimental conditions were analyzed by atomic force microscopy. The TiN films exhibit intrinsic anomalous scaling and multiscaling. The film kinetic roughening is characterized by a set of local exponent values {alpha}{sub loc}=1.0 and {beta}{sub loc}=0.39, and global exponent values {alpha}=1.7 and {beta}=0.67, with a coarsening exponent of 1/z=0.39. These properties are correlated to the local height-difference distribution function obeying power-law statistics. We associate this intrinsic anomalous scaling with the instability due to nonlocal shadowing effects that take place during thin-film growth by sputtering.

• OSTI ID: 20787858
• Journal Information: Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Journal Name: Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 73; ISSN 1098-0121
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY
CRYSTAL GROWTH
DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS
MORPHOLOGY
ROUGHNESS
SILICON
SPUTTERING
SUBSTRATES
SURFACE COATING
SURFACE TREATMENTS
SURFACES
THIN FILMS
TITANIUM NITRIDES