Epitaxial Growth of TiN Films on (100) Silicon Substrates by Laser Physical Vapor Deposition

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe have synthesized epitaxial TiN films having low resistivity on (100) silicon substrates using pulsed laser deposition method. The TiN films were characterized using X-ray diffraction, Rutherford back-scattering, four-point-probe ac resistivity, high resolution transmission electron microscopy techniques and epitaxial relationship was found to be <100> TiN // <100> Si. TiN films showed 10–20% channeling yield. In the plane, four unit cells of TiN match with three unit cells of silicon with less than 4.0% misfit. This domain matching epitaxy provides a new mechanism of epitaxial growth in systems with large lattice misfits. Room-temperature resistivity of these films was found to be about 15 μΩ-cm. Implications of low-resistivity epitaxial TiN in silicon device fabrication are discussed.