Study of the effect of plasma current density on the formation of titanium nitride and titanium oxynitride thin films prepared by reactive DC magnetron sputtering (original) (raw)
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Properties of titanium nitride films prepared by direct current magnetron sputtering
Materials Science and Engineering: A, 2007
Titanium nitride (TiN) thin films of different thickness were deposited by direct current (dc) magnetron sputtering under conditions of various N 2 concentrations (0.5-34%). The electrical, optical, structural, compositional and morphological properties of the films were studied and the results were discussed with respect to N 2 concentration and thickness of the films. At low N 2 concentration of 0.5% (of the total sputtering pressure 1.1 Pa), golden coloured stoichiometric TiN films were obtained and with increase in the N 2 concentration non-stoichiometric TiN x phases resulted. However, irrespective of the N 2 concentration, the TiN stoichiometry in the films increased with increase in the film thickness. In the surface of the films the presence of nitride (TiN), oxynitride (TiO x N y ) and oxide (TiO 2 ) phases were observed and the quantity of these phases varied with the N 2 concentration and thickness. The films of lower thickness were found to be amorphous and the crystallinity was observed in the films with increase in the thickness. The crystalline films showed reflections corresponding to the (1 1 1), (2 0 0) and (2 2 0) orientation of the cubic TiN and also features associated with TiN x phases. The transmission spectra of the films revealed the typical characteristics of the TiN films i.e. a narrow transmission band, however, the width varied with thickness, in the wavelength range of 300-600 nm and exhibited low transmission in the infrared region. The TiN films deposited at low N 2 concentration of 0.5% showed smooth and uniform morphology with densely packed crystallites. With increase in N 2 concentration various characteristics such as needle type crystallization, bubble precipitates and after bubble burst morphologies were observed in the films. However, at higher N 2 concentration conditions, uniformity developed in the films with increase in thickness.
Titanium oxynitride thin films sputter deposited by the reactive gas pulsing process
Applied Surface Science, 2007
DC reactive sputtering was used to successfully make thin films of titanium oxynitride using titanium metallic target, argon as plasma gas and nitrogen and oxygen as reactive gases. The nitrogen partial pressure was kept constant during every deposition whereas oxygen flow rate was pulsed using a square pattern. The study consisted in analysing the influence of the shape of the pulsed rate on physical properties of these films. In order to adjust the metalloid concentration to get films with a wide range of oxygen-to-nitrogen ratios, the reactive gas pulsing process (RGPP) was used. In this process, the oxygen flow switches ''on'' and ''off'' periodically according to a duty cycle a = t ON /T. Electrical conductivity of films measured against temperature was gradually modified from metallic (s 300K = 4.42 Â 10 4 S m À1 ) to semi-conducting behaviour (s 300K = 7.14 S m À1 ) with an increasing duty cycle. Mechanical properties like nanohardness (H n ) and reduced Young's modulus (E r ) of the films were investigated. Experimental values of H n and E r obtained by nanoindentation at 10% depth ranged from 15.8 to 5.2 GPa and from 273 to 142 GPa, respectively. Evolutions of H n and E against duty cycle were similar. A regular decrease was observed for duty cycle a 25% corresponding to the occurrence of TiO x N y phase. Higher duty cycles led to the smallest values of H n and E and correlated with TiO 2 compound composition. At last, the colour variation of these titanium oxynitrides was investigated as a function of a in the L * a * b * colour space. It was related to the chemical composition of the films. #
Electrical properties of titanium nitride films synthesized by reactive magnetron sputtering
Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2017
Reactive dc magnetron sputtering was employed to produce thin films of titanium nitride using titanium metallic target, argon as the plasma gas and nitrogen as the reactive gas. A set of the films was studied deposited on the Si, fused silica and crystalline (001) MgO substrates with various deposition conditions. The films deposited on the Si and SiO 2 substrates are polycrystalline while deposited at slow rate to the heated to 600C MgO substrate are highly epitaxial according both to XRD and LEED data. Electrical resistivity of the films was measured by means of the four-probe van der Pauw method.
Paper, 2017
Mechanical properties of titanium nitride films obtained by reactively sputtering with hot target R V Babinova, V V Smirnov, A S Useenov et al.-Influence of technological parameters on the mechanical properties of titanium nitride films deposited by hot target reactive sputtering A A Kozin, V I Shapovalov, V V Smirnov et al.-Properties of Titanium Nitride Films for Abstract. Reactive dc magnetron sputtering was employed to produce thin films of titanium nitride using titanium metallic target, argon as the plasma gas and nitrogen as the reactive gas. A set of the films was studied deposited on the Si, fused silica and crystalline (001) MgO substrates with various deposition conditions. The films deposited on the Si and SiO 2 substrates are polycrystalline while deposited at slow rate to the heated to 600C MgO substrate are highly epitaxial according both to XRD and LEED data. Electrical resistivity of the films was measured by means of the four-probe van der Pauw method.
Titanium nitride nano-structure by DC magnetron sputtering plasma
Titanium nitride is useful as hard coating for surface durability It also provides wear and corrosion resistance to the coated material Direct current magnetron sputtering is used for deposition of titanium nitride (TiN) on an alloy of copper and tin (bell-metal) substrate Plasma is produced in argon and nitrogen reactive gas environment with titanium (cathode) as the target for the sputtering mechanism Qualitative study of the deposited titanium nitride film shows the formation of nano-structure XRD study confirms the formation of TiN, SEM and AFM analyses are carried out to study the surface morphology of the deposited film The TiN film provides a permanent hard protective and anti-corrosive bright gold coloured coating to the bell-metal substrate
Structural and Ion Beam Analysis of Reactive Magnetron Sputtered Titanium Oxynitride Thin Films
2018
TiOxNy may combine the advantages of titanium oxides and nitrides in optimal conditions. Due to their physical and chemical versatility, titanium oxynitrides are gaining relevance in numerous applications such as optoelectronics, tribology and catalysis. In this study, titanium oxynitride thin film samples were grown at low sputtering pressure (1.07 Pa) on sodalime glass substrates using 99.99 % purity titanium target with argon working gas, pure nitrogen, background residual oxygen and constant sputtering power of 200 W. While other parameters were fixed at the optimum values, the deposition time was varied from 5 and 25minutes. Rutherford backscattering (RBS) spectrometry was used to determine the stoichiometry and areal density of the films. X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and optical microscopy were used to study the structural and microstructural characteristics of the films. Variations in the elemental concentrations of the films with respect to the N/O ratio were observed based on...
Vacuum, 2013
The main purpose of this work is to present and to interpret the change of structure and physical properties of tantalum oxynitride (TaN x O y ) thin films, produced by dc reactive magnetron sputtering, by varying the processing parameters. A set of TaN x O y films was prepared by varying the reactive gases flow rate, using a N 2 /O 2 gas mixture with a concentration ratio of 17:3. The different films, obtained by this process, exhibited significant differences. The obtained composition and the interpretation of X-ray diffraction results, shows that, depending on the partial pressure of the reactive gases, the films are: essentially dark grey metallic, when the atomic ratio (N þ O)/Ta < 0.1, evidencing a tetragonal b-Ta structure; grey-brownish, when 0.1 < (N þ O)/Ta < 1, exhibiting a face-centred cubic (fcc) TaN-like structure; and transparent oxide-type, when (N þ O)/Ta > 1, evidencing the existence of Ta 2 O 5 , but with an amorphous structure. These transparent films exhibit refractive indexes, in the visible region, always higher than 2.0.
Investigation of Titanium Nitride Thin Films Treated in Hot Cathode Arc Discharge Plasma System
Applied Science Letters, 2016
Titanium thin films were grown using DC magnetron sputtering, and then treated in a hot cathode arc discharge plasma system for nitrding by keeping 80 % N2 and 20 % H2. In this plasma system, we can independently control the plasma and nitrding parameters. During our analyses, low intensity and larger FWHM of diffraction peaks clearly indicated that TiNx films are not fully crystalline and a large fraction of them is still amorphous. AFM measurement showed that there is a reduction in particle size (32.76 nm to 16.95 nm) as well as in surface roughness (35.6 nm to 31.8 nm) with an increase in nitriding time (60 min. to 120 min.). Photoluminescence measurement depicted the presence of strong peak at 3.24 eV and other weak peak at 3.37 eV for the sample nitrided for 120 min. The modifications in local electronic structure after nitriding are understood using XPS measurements at different elemental edges. TiNx films developed using DC magnetron sputtering and treated in plasma system may find applications in solar control panels and as a resistance to high temperature coatings.
Structure and Composition of TiVN Thin Films Deposited by Reactive DC Magnetron Co-sputtering
Procedia Engineering, 2012
Ternary nitride hard coatings are known of excellent wear characteristics which have proved to be successfully transferable to industrial application. This paper presents the structures and compositions of TiVN thin films deposited by Reactive DC Magnetron Co-sputtering technique from a titanium target and a vanadium target alternatively in a mixed Ar/N 2 atmosphere. By variation of the vanadium sputtering current, different samples have been obtained. The sputtering current effects on structures, surface morphologies and element compositions were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) employing Energy-Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDX). It was found that crystal structures, microstructures, surface morphologies and element compositions of TiVN thin films depended on the deposition parameters. All the samples are composed of TiVN crystal structure (111) (200) and (220) planes and the crystallinity of films changed as a function of vanadium sputtering currents. Roughness and average thickness of the films increased from 2.60 to 7.07 nm and 222.78 to 490.99 nm respectively. The EDX results indicated that the atomic ratio of V to Ti was increased from 0.13 to 1.58.
The effect of substrate orientation and ion bombardment during the growth on the structure and properties of TiN films deposited by reactive unbalanced magnetron sputtering has been reported. Films deposited at a nitrogen partial pressure of 5×10–5 mbar and a current density of 2.50 mA cm–2 were golden yellow in color, characteristic of stoichiometric TiN. The effect of Si(100) and Si(111) substrates on the TiN film along with the substrate bias has been investigated. With an increase in the substrate bias on Si(111) substrate, TiN(111) is the most preferred orientation. On a Si(100) substrate with an increase in the substrate bias, TiN(220) orientation has been observed. The influence of the substrate on the growth of TiN films has been explained in terms of surface energy. The variation of grain size, resistivity, and the internal stress of TiN films as the function of substrate bias have also been investigated