| AVS 60th International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Advanced Surface Engineering | Thursday Sessions |
| Session SE+NS+TF-ThA |
| Session: | Nanostructured Thin Films and Coatings |
| Presenter: | I.G. Petrov, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and Linköping University, Sweden |
| Authors: | I.G. Petrov, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and Linköping University, Sweden J.E. Greene, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and Linköping University, Sweden L. Hultman, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and Linköping University, Sweden |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Polycrystalline TiN and related transition-metal nitride (TMN) thin films are typically deposited by reactive magnetron sputter deposition and employed as diffusion barriers in microelectronics as well as hard, wear-, and corrosion-resistant coatings in mechanical and optical applications. We use a combination of HR-XRD, TEM, HR-XTEM, AFM, and STM analyses to characterize micro- and nanostructures. We will review the fundamental film growth processes - nucleation, coalescence, competitive growth, and recrystallization - and their role in thin film microstructure evolution as a function of substrate temperature. Special attention will paid to in-situ substrate treatment by ion-irradiation and its effect on film microstructure and adhesion. Using spontaneous natural patterning processes, we show that self-organized nanostructures consisting of commensurate nanolamellae, nanocolumns, nanospheres, and nanopipes can be synthesized to further extend the range of achievable properties. All of these structures are a result of kinetic limitations and require low growth temperatures combined with low-energy (less than the lattice atom displacement potential), very high flux, ion irradiation during deposition. Quantitative information of adatom transport and surface site energies required for the models are obtained from in-situ high-temperature STM and LEEM analyses. In addition, we use classical molecular dynamics and the modified embedded atom method formalism to investigate the dynamics of atomic-scale transport and film growth on a low-index model compound surface, TiN(001). This approach allows us to gain insight in kinetics of the pathways of Ti, N, and TiNx (x = 1 – 3) adspecies on terraces and single-atom-high TiN(001) in the picosecond regime which are not accessible by state of the art atomistic experimental techniques or by static DFT calculations. We will also review recent advances in the selective use of metal ions during HIPIMS co-sputtering to extend the attainable structures and properties in metastable TMN with examples of Ti(1-x)AlxN, Ti(1-x)SixN, and Ti(1-x)TaxN.