Non-destructive study of the ion-implantation-affected zone (the long-range effect) in titanium nitride

Abstract The depth to which metal ion implantation can change the structure of titanium nitride coatings is studied using two techniques— positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) and glancing-angle X-ray diffraction (GA-XRD)—which are normally applied to the study of bulk materials. The PAS results indicate that the depth to which vacancies are found greatly exceeds the depth at which the implanted material resides. In addition, the concentration of vacancies continues to increase with the dose of implanted ions. The GA-XRD data show that the implantation does not change the residual stress—it remains slightly tensile. Furthermore, there is an increase in the diffraction peak broadening, which is attributed to an increase in the local strain distribution resulting from the generation of a dislocation network at depths of up to several tenths of a micrometer below the implanted zone. The data support the view of a long-range effect, where metal ion implantation causes lattice defect generation within an implantation-affected zone (IAZ) to depths well beyond the implanted zone. The defective nature of the IAZ depends on the implanted dose and the acceleration voltage, as well as on the nature of the ions implanted. In the present work, there is no residual stress in the samples, so this cannot induce the IAZ.