Nanostructural, Surface Morphological Evolution, and Physical Properties of Sodium Chloride-Structure Titanium Nitride and Titanium Cerium Nitride Layers as a Function of Composition

Abstract

I use a combination of alloying and low-energy ion irradiation during film growth to controllably manipulate the nanostructure of TiN-based layers. Ti0.8Ce0.2N films are grown on oxidized Si(001) at 350°C using UHV reactive magnetron sputter deposition in pure N2. The N+2 to metal ratio incident at the growing film is maintained constant at 15 while the ion energy EN+2 is varied from 14 to 45 eV. Films grown with EN+2 = 14 eV consist of equiaxed nanograins with an average size of 2.0 nm while layers deposited with EN+2 = 45 eV exhibit a 2-nm-wide nanocolumnar structure. In both cases, the films are dense, atomically smooth, and have strong 002 preferred orientation with low stress.