<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>In this paper the influence of temperature on the 3-D surface morphology of titanium nitride (TiN) thin films synthesized by DC reactive magnetron sputtering has been analyzed. The 3-D morphology variation of TiN thin films grown on p-type Si (100) wafers was investigated at four different deposition temperatures (473 K, 573 K, 673 K, 773 K) in order to evaluate the relation among the 3-D micro-textured surfaces. The 3-D surface morphology of TiN thin films was characterized by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) and fractal analysis applied to the AFM data. The 3-D surface morphology revealed the fractal geometry of TiN thin films at nanometer scale. The global scale properties of 3-D surface geometry were quantitatively estimated using the fractal dimensions D, determined by the morphological envelopes method. The fractal dimension D increased with the substrate temperature variation from 2.36 (at 473 K) to 2.66 (at 673 K) and then decreased to 2.33 (at 773 K). The fractal analysis in correlation with the averaged power spectral density (surface) yielded better quantitative results of morphological changes in the TiN thin films caused by substrate temperature variations, which were more precise, detailed, coherent and reproducible. It can be inferred that fractal analysis can be easily applied for the investigation of morphology evolution of different film/substrate interface phases obtained using different thin-film technologies.</p></abstract>

In this paper the influence of temperature on the 3-D surface morphology of titanium nitride (TiN) thin films synthesized by DC reactive magnetron sputtering has been analyzed. The 3-D morphology variation of TiN thin films grown on p-type Si (100) wafers was investigated at four different deposition temperatures (473 K, 573 K, 673 K, 773 K) in order to evaluate the relation among the 3-D micro-textured surfaces. The 3-D surface morphology of TiN thin films was characterized by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) and fractal analysis applied to the AFM data. The 3-D surface morphology revealed the fractal geometry of TiN thin films at nanometer scale. The global scale properties of 3-D surface geometry were quantitatively estimated using the fractal dimensions D, determined by the morphological envelopes method. The fractal dimension D increased with the substrate temperature variation from 2.36 (at 473 K) to 2.66 (at 673 K) and then decreased to 2.33 (at 773 K). The fractal analysis in correlation with the averaged power spectral density (surface) yielded better quantitative results of morphological changes in the TiN thin films caused by substrate temperature variations, which were more precise, detailed, coherent and reproducible. It can be inferred that fractal analysis can be easily applied for the investigation of morphology evolution of different film/substrate interface phases obtained using different thin-film technologies.

Surface morphology of titanium nitride thin films synthesized by DC reactive magnetron sputtering

Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department of AET, Discipline of Descriptive Geometry and Engineering Graphics, 103-105 B-dul Muncii St., Cluj-Napoca 400641, Cluj, Romania

University of Silesia, Faculty of Computer Science and Materials Science, Institute of Informatics, Department of Biomedical Computer Systems, Będzińska 39, 41-205 Sosnowiec, Poland

Islamic Azad University, Plasma Physics Research Center, Science and Research Branch, P.O. Box 14665-678, Tehran, Iran

Materials Science-Poland

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

In this paper the influence of temperature on the 3-D surface morphology of titanium nitride (TiN) thin films synthesized by DC reactive magnetron sputtering...

Surface morphology of titanium nitride thin films synthesized by DC reactive magnetron sputtering

Published Online: Mar 13, 2015

Page range: 137 - 143

Received: Jul 25, 2014

Accepted: Oct 07, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/msp-2015-0010

© 2015

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.