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Abstract
Owing to the reducing effect of NHx radicals and H species produced in (Ar-N2-H2) expanding plasma, chemical reactions are promoted in thin metal films in contrast with other plasma treatments where the impinging energetic ions play the main role. Multi layers of Mo, Ti, and their nitrides are used in very recent applications such as supercapacitors or solar cells. They combine the interesting properties of the constituents. This work reports on the formation and the structure of Ti nitrides and Mo silicides in Mo–Ti bilayer films coated on Si wafers exposed to (Ar-N2-H2) plasma for 1 to 3 h. Nitrogen diffuses into the surface layers from 400 °C and TiN starts to crystallize from 600 °C. Interdiffusion of Mo, Ti, and Si through Mo–Ti bilayer films gives rise to the formation of Mo–Ti alloys and MoSi2 of hexagonal structure, which transforms into MoSi2 of tetragonal structure at longer treatment durations. A 1 h 30 min plasma exposure at 800 °C leads to the formation of three layers of nearly equal thickness with clear interfaces, which consist of TiN and MoSi2 of nanometric size in the vicinity of the Mo–Ti bilayer film surface.
Highlights
Transition metal nitrides and silicides exhibit very attractive physical and chemical properties.Owing to their structure which involves covalent, ionic, and metallic bonding, the high hardness, Young modulus, and melting point equal to 2947 ◦ C for TiN, make them similar to ceramic materials, whereas their low electrical resistivity equal to 19.8 μΩ·cm for Mo2 N and 30 μΩ·cm for TiN make them similar to metals [1,2,3]
The results reported in this paper highlight the strong ability of the components of Mo–Ti bilayer films coated on Si wafer to diffuse across various interfaces
TiO2 crystallizes in Mo–Ti bilayer films processed in expanding plasma at 600 and 800 ◦ C
Summary
Transition metal nitrides and silicides exhibit very attractive physical and chemical properties. Owing to their structure which involves covalent, ionic, and metallic bonding, the high hardness, Young modulus, and melting point equal to 2947 ◦ C for TiN, make them similar to ceramic materials, whereas their low electrical resistivity equal to 19.8 μΩ·cm for Mo2 N and 30 μΩ·cm for TiN make them similar to metals [1,2,3]. Transition metal silicides exhibit low resistivity equal to 14–17 μΩ·cm for TiSi2 [4]. Transition metal silicides have high temperature stability, chemical compatibility, and low Schottky barrier height. Transition metal nitrides and silicides are used in a large range of applications. Multilayer films of transition metal nitrides, with layer thickness ranging from ten to Coatings 2019, 9, 96; doi:10.3390/coatings9020096 www.mdpi.com/journal/coatings
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