Low grain size TiN thin ®lms obtained by low energy ion beam assisted deposition

TiN thin ®lms have been deposited on silicon wafers by electron beam evaporation of Ti with simultaneous assistance of nitrogen ion bombardment (IBAD technique). In order to reduce the oxygen incorporation in the ®lms, a Ti pre-evaporation was done just before the deposition process. We have investigated the in¯uence of the ®lm thickness on both the structural and mechanical properties of the ®lms. We found hard TiN ®lms (of about 28 GPa) with very low ®lm roughness (less than 3 nm for ®lm thickness of 0.8 mm) and values for the grain sizes of roughly 20 nm as revealed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) analysis was carried out to obtain the ®lm stoichiometry showing almost pure TiN ®lms with a very low content of oxygen (less than 2 at.%). # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.