Effect of the substrate on structure and properties of titanium nitride films grown by plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition

Abstract

The authors deposited titanium nitride (TiN) films by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition on various types of amorphous, polycrystalline, and single crystalline substrates and found that the crystallinity of the substrate strongly affects the morphology, orientation, and resistivity of the films. An appropriate substrate choice yields TiN films with bulk resistivity values of about ∼20 μΩ cm. The preferred crystallographic orientation of the films, either (111) or (001), does not affect film resistivity.