Relation between microstructure and stress in titanium nitride films grown by plasma immersion ion implantation

Polycrystalline and microcrystalline materials grown as thin films often exhibit a preferred crystallographic orientation. The mechanism by which this preferred orientation develops has been the subject of some debate. In this article we present the results of electron microscopy and diffraction experiments examining preferred orientation in titanium–nitride (TiN) films deposited by physical vapor deposition with bombardment energies up to 18 keV using plasma immersion ion implantation. We show that as the bombardment energy increases the intrinsic stress is reduced. For example, at 3 kV more than a 50% reduction in stress is achieved. The results are consistent with a model in which the preferred orientation is the result of minimizing the energy, which includes both surface energy and bulk strain energy terms.