Fundamental mechanisms of titanium nitride formation by d.c. magnetron sputtering

Abstract The dependences of the structure and properties of titanium nitride layers deposited using reactive d.c. magnetron sputtering on the substrate bias voltage and substrate position were investigated. The plasma parameters and particle fluxes towards the substrate surface were analysed using in-situ methods. The microstructure of the layers as well as important properties strongly depend on the impact of energetic particles on the surface of the growing film. The formation of the TiN compound, on the contrary, depends mainly on the neutral atomic and excited molecular nitrogen species arising within the magnetron discharge.