Influence of deposition temperature on the structure and internal stress of TiN films deposited by filtered cathodic vacuum arc

Abstract

TiN films were deposited by an off-plane double bend filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique. Atomic force microscopy and x-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to study the surface morphology and crystal structure of TiN films. Substrate bending methods were used to measure the internal stress. The influence of deposition temperature on the surface morphology, crystal structure, and internal stress were systematically studied. The surface roughness, grain size and the intensity of the XRD peak increase linearly with increasing deposition temperature. The crystallographic orientation develops from (111) preferred orientation to (200) preferred orientation as the deposition temperature is increased. The increase of deposition temperature from 50 to 450 °C results in a linear decrease of internal stress from 9.88 to 4.30 GPa. The enhancement of the mobility of atoms in the films and the variation of crystallographic orientation with increasing deposition temperature contribute to the decrease of internal stress in the films.