Microstructural characterization of Ti–C–N thin films prepared by reactive crossed beam pulsed laser deposition

In this work, Raman spectroscopy has been used to characterize Ti–C–N thin films in order to obtain information about the microstructure of the deposited materials, and in particular to study the effects due to the carbon incorporation into the TiN lattice. Ti–C–N thin films were prepared using a crossed plasma configuration in which the ablation of two different targets, titanium and carbon, in a reactive atmosphere was performed. With this configuration, the carbon content in the films was varied in an easy way from 5.0 at% to 40.0 at%. Thin film composition was determined from Non-Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy (NRBS) measurements. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-Ray diffraction measurements were also carried out in order to characterize the films in more detail, with this being used to give support to the interpretation of the Raman spectra. The Raman results revealed that at lower carbon concentrations a solid solution Ti(C, N) is formed, whilst at higher carbon concentrations a nanocomposite, consisting of nanocrystalline TiCN and TiC immersed in an amorphous carbon matrix is obtained.