Effects of strain energy on the preferred orientation of TiN thin films

The effects of strain energy on the preferred orientation of TiN thin films were investigated. In the TiN film deposited by plasma‐enhanced chemical‐vapor deposition with a power of 50 W, the overall energy of the film mainly depended on the surface energy because its strain energy was relatively small. The preferred orientation of the film corresponded to the plane with the lowest surface energy, i.e., (200). However, in the TiN film deposited by rf sputtering with a power of 200 W, the overall energy of the film was largely controlled by strain energy due to its large strain energy, and its growth orientation corresponded to the plane with the lowest strain energy, i.e., (111). Furthermore, the preferred orientation of the TiN film was changed from (200) to (111) with the film thickness. It is considered that this phenomenon is due to the increase of strain energy with its thickness.

[1]  H. Windischmann,et al.  Intrinsic stress in sputtered thin films , 1991 .

[2]  Yeonhee Lee,et al.  Analysis of TiC and TiN films prepared by an arc-induced ion plating , 1991 .

[3]  A. B. Chattopadhyay,et al.  Wear and performance of coated carbide and ceramic tools , 1982 .

[4]  James P. Doyle,et al.  Vapor deposition processes for amorphous carbon films with sp3 fractions approaching diamond , 1991 .

[5]  D. Rickerby,et al.  Correlation of process and system parameters with structure and properties of physically vapour- deposited hard coatings , 1988 .

[6]  J. Musil,et al.  X-ray analysis of strain in titanium nitride layers , 1987 .

[7]  S. Vepřek.  Plasma-induced and plasma-assisted chemical vapour deposition , 1985 .

[8]  D. W. Hoffman.  Stress and property control in sputtered metal films without substrate bias , 1983 .

[9]  Nathan I. Croitoru,et al.  Reactive-sputter-deposited TiN films on glass substrates , 1991 .

[10]  T. T. Sheng,et al.  Tungsten metallization for LSI applications , 1974 .

[11]  S. Schiller,et al.  Reactive high rate D.C. sputtering: Deposition rate, stoichiometry and features of TiOx and TiNx films with respect to the target mode , 1984 .

[12]  M. Jagner,et al.  Residual stress in physically vapor deposited films: A study of deviations from elastic behavior , 1989 .

[13]  Robert Sinclair,et al.  The preparation of cross‐section specimens for transmission electron microscopy , 1984 .

[14]  W. Sproul,et al.  High rate reactively sputtered TiN coatings on high speed steel drills , 1985 .

[15]  B.-O. Johansson,et al.  Mechanisms of reactive sputtering of titanium nitride and titanium carbide II: Morphology and structure , 1983 .

[16]  I. Petrov,et al.  Microstructure modification of TiN by ion bombardment during reactive sputter deposition , 1989 .

[17]  A. Jones,et al.  X-ray diffraction studies of physically vapour-deposited coatings , 1989 .

[18]  J. Sundgren,et al.  Structure and properties of TiN coatings , 1985 .