Substrate Mediated Synthesis of Ti-Si-N Nano-and-Micro Structures for Optoelectronic Applications

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel substrate-mediated method to synthesize TiSiN nano- and micro-structures with unique morphologies that enhance optoelectronic properties through plasmonic effects, including tunable resistive switching under light.

Contribution

It introduces a new fabrication technique for TiSiN structures with specific morphologies and develops a model explaining photo-induced electron scattering and resistive switching mechanisms.

Findings

Morphologically enriched TiSiN films exhibit plasmon-mediated optoelectronic responses.

Surface morphology and film thickness control resistive switching under illumination.

A theoretical model links electron scattering rates to device resistance changes.

Abstract

Being one of the strongest materials, ternary TiSiN exhibits a very interesting family of binary transition metal nitride and silicide systems. A novel technique to fabricate morphologically fascinating nano and micro structures of TiSiN is reported here. The referred TiSiN films, majorly constituted with cubic TiN phase, are enriched with crystalline nanoparticles, micro-flowers and faceted micro-crystals which possess attractive functionalities towards plasmon mediated optoelectronic applications. Reactivity of titanium to silicon nitride based dielectric topping on the substrate at high temperature plays the key role in nitride formation for the demonstrated protocol. The optoelectronic response for these morphologically enriched composite films indicates an influential role of photo-induced surface plasmon polaritons on their dc transport properties. A plasmonically tuned resistive switching, controlled by the surface morphology in association with the film thickness, is observed under light illumination. Using Drudes modified frequency dependent bulk electron scattering rates and surface mediated SPPs-electron scattering rates, a generic model is proposed for addressing unambiguously the increased device resistance in response to light. The featured synthesis process opens a new direction towards the growth of transition metal nitrides while the proposed model serves as a basic platform to understand photo-induced electron scattering mechanisms in metal.