Preferentially orientated E-beam TiN thin films using focused jet of nitrogen gas

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel electron beam evaporation method with focused nitrogen gas jet to synthesize TiN thin films with a specific (111) preferred orientation, analyzing their structural and mechanical properties.

Contribution

It introduces a modified evaporator design that achieves controlled orientation in TiN films using a focused nitrogen gas jet and local plasma generation.

Findings

Achieved (111) preferred orientation at 25 degrees to surface normal.

Measured hardness of 19.5 GPa and modulus of 214 GPa.

Observed stress relaxation in multicycle indentation tests.

Abstract

A modified electron beam evaporator has been used judiciously to synthesize TiN thin films with (111) preferred orientation. This new design involved in creating local plasma by accelerating the secondary electrons emitted from the evaporating ingot by a positively biased semi-cylindrical anode plate kept in the vicinity and a jet of N2 gas has been focused towards the substrate as a reactive gas. We have observed a preferred orientation (111) with 25 degree angle to the surface normal and this was confirmed by pole figure analysis. The phenomenon of preferred orientation (111) has been explained based on the rate of evaporation. The residual stress by the classical sin2psi technique did not yield any tangible result due to the preferred orientation. The hardness and modulus measured by nanoindentation technique was around 19.5 GPa and 214 GPa. The continuous multicycle indentation test on these films exhibited a stress relaxation.