Preparation of titanium oxynitride thin films by reactive sputtering using air/Ar mixtures

Abstract

In the literature titanium oxynitride (TiN(x)O(y)) films have often been prepared by controlling N(2)/O(2)/Ar mixing gases in physical vapor deposition. in this study, TiNxOy films were prepared by d.c. magnetron sputtering using air/Ar mixtures. Replacing N(2)/O(2) with air as a reactive gas allowed the process performed at high base pressures, i.e., low vacuum, which could drastically reduce processing time while achieving similar quality of the films prepared at a low base pressure. When the air/Ar flow ratio increased from 0.15 to 0.30, the color of the films changed from light golden to dark golden and X-ray diffraction patterns show that the preferred Orientation of films with rock-salt Structure changed from (111) into (200). The oxygen content in the TiN(x)O(y) films increased with increasing the air/Ar ratio, as determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The thickness of the films decreased with increasing the air/Ar ratio, revealing the target poisoning effect especially at high air/Ar ratios. Electrical resistivities of the films increased with the ratio owing to the increase of oxygen content in the films. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.