Pulsed laser deposition of epitaxial titanium nitride on MgO 001/ monitored by RHEED oscillation

Titanium nitride was grown epitaxially on MgO 001.by a pulsed laser deposition PLD.method, and the oscillations of reflection high energy electron diffraction RHEED.for this system were observed for the first time. The RHEED patterns and atomic force microscope AFM. analysis revealed the two-dimensional growth of highly flat TiN films. The high-resolution reciprocal space mapping of X-ray diffraction of the TiN film showed that the lattice dimensions of the TiN shrunk along the plane parallel to the surface of the MgO 001.substrate by 0.6% with no structural relaxation and no mosaic disorder, demonstrating the deposition of the high-quality epitaxial film. q2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.