Effects of 200keV argon ions irradiation on microstructural properties of titanium nitride films

This paper reports on a study of microstructrual changes in TiN/Si bilayers due to 200keV Ar+ ions irradiation at room temperature. The 240nm TiN/Si bilayers were prepared by d.c. reactive sputtering on crystalline Si (100) substrates. The TiN films were deposited at the substrate temperature of 150°C. After deposition the TiN/Si bilayers were irradiated to the fluences of 5×1015 and 2×1016 ions/cm2. The structural changes induced by ion irradiation in the TiN/Si bilayers were analyzed by Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy (RBS), X-ray diffraction analyses (XRD) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The irradiations caused the microstructrual changes in TiN layers, but no amorphization even at the highest argon fluence of 2×1016 ions/cm2. It is also observed that the mean crystallite size decreases with the increasing ion fluence.