Study of titanium nitride film growth by plasma enhanced pulsed laser deposition at different experimental conditions

Abstract

In this work, we have combined a conventional pulsed laser deposition (PLD) system with a dual radio frequency (RF) discharge to create a plasma-enhanced PLD system, known as (PE-PLD). This system was used to grow titanium nitride (TiN) thin films in order to study the feasibility of obtaining control over the nitrogen concentration and the deposition rate. The characterization of the RF plasma was performed using an RF compensated Langmuir probe, while atomic force microscopy (AFM), optical profilometry, Raman spectroscopy, and x-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to analyze the deposited thin films. We observed a significantly enhanced nitrogen concentration and deposition rate as a function of the RF plasma parameters, substrate temperature, and deposition time. Furthermore, we have observed that, using a dual RF configuration, it becomes possible to modify independently the flow and the bombardment energy of the nitrogen ions that impact the substrate. These means allow the control of the nitrogen concentration and deposition rate.