Evolution of nanoscale texture in ultrathin TiN films

Abstract

We investigate the evolution of texture and grain morphology in fine-grained TiN thin films using cross correlation of dark-field images obtained using annular objective apertures with radii that correspond to different low index TiN reflections. This technique enables parallel analyses of the orientations of thousands of grains, with a spatial resolution of order 10 nm. Preferred grain orientations were determined for 40 and 100 nm thick TiN layers grown on SiO2 by magnetically unbalanced reactive magnetron sputter deposition. We find that no single orientation is dominant in the 40 nm films but that a 〈100〉 texture has developed by the time these films reach 100 nm in thickness.