Reactive Pulsed Laser Deposition of Titanium Nitride Thin Films: Effect of Reactive Gas Pressure on the Structure, Composition, and Properties

Abstract

Titanium nitride (TiN) thin films were deposited by reactive pulsed laser deposition (RPLD) technique. For the first time, the composition evaluated from proton elastic backscattering spectrometry, in a quantitative manner, revealed a dependence on the partial pressure of nitrogen from 1 to 10 Pa. Grazing incidence-XRD (GI-XRD) confirmed the formation of predominantly nanocrystalline TiN phase with a crystallite size of around 30 nm. The hardness showed maximum value of ~30 GPa when the composition is near stoichiometric and the friction coefficient was found to be as low as 0.3. In addition, a systematic optical response was observed as a function of deposition pressure from the surface of the TiN films using spectroscopic ellipsometry.