Effects of high-flux low-energy (20--100 eV) ion irradiation during deposition on the microstructure and preferred orientation of Ti[sub 0. 5]Al[sub 0. 5]N alloys grown by ultra-high-vacuum reactive magnetron sputtering

Journal Article · Tue Jun 15 00:00:00 EDT 1993 · Journal of Applied Physics; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.353388· OSTI ID:6521659

Adibi, F; Petrov, I; Greene, J E ^[1]; Hultman, L; Sundgren, J ^[2]

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1. Department of Materials Science, The Coordinated Science Laboratory, and The Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, 1101 West Springfield Avenue, Urbana, Illinois, 61801 (United States)
2. Thin Film Division, Physics Department, Linkoeping University, S-581 83 Linkoeping (Sweden)

The effects of incident ion/metal flux ratio [ital J][sub [ital i]]/[ital J][sub Me] and ion energy [ital E][sub [ital i]] on the microstructure, texture, and phase composition of polycrystalline metastable Ti[sub 0.5]Al[sub 0.5]N films produced by reactive magnetron sputtering have been investigated using x-ray diffraction (XRD), plan-view and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy, and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy. The films, typically [congruent]1 [mu]m thick, were deposited at a pressure of 20 mTorr (2.67 Pa) in pure N[sub 2] on thermally oxidized Si(001) substrates at 250[plus minus]25 [degree]C. The N[sub 2][sup +] ion flux to the substrate was controlled by means of a variable axial magnetic field superimposed on the permanent magnetic field of the magnetron. Films deposited at [ital E][sub [ital i]]=20 eV ([congruent]10 eV per incident accelerated N) with [ital J][sub [ital i]]/[ital J][sub Me]=1 exhibited a complete (111) texture with a porous columnar microstructure and an average column size of [congruent]30 nm. Increasing [ital E][sub [ital i]] from 20 to 85 eV, while maintaining [ital J][sub [ital i]]/[ital J][sub Me] constant at 1, resulted in a small change in texture as the XRD intensity ratio [ital I][sub 002]/([ital I][sub 111]+[ital I][sub 002]) increased from [congruent]0 to 0.14, a decrease in average column size to 25 nm, and a reduction in intracolumn porosity.

• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76ER01198
• OSTI ID: 6521659
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics; (United States), Vol. 73:12; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ALUMINIUM NITRIDES
SPUTTERING
TITANIUM NITRIDES
ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
EV RANGE 10-100
IONS
MICROSTRUCTURE
PHASE STUDIES
PHYSICAL RADIATION EFFECTS
TERNARY ALLOY SYSTEMS
TEXTURE
THIN FILMS
X-RAY DIFFRACTION
ALLOY SYSTEMS
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
CHARGED PARTICLES
COHERENT SCATTERING
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
DIFFRACTION
ENERGY RANGE
EV RANGE
FILMS
MICROSCOPY
NITRIDES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
PNICTIDES
RADIATION EFFECTS
SCATTERING
TITANIUM COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
360102* - Metals & Alloys- Structure & Phase Studies