The influence of substrate temperature and Al mobility on the microstructural evolution of magnetron sputtered ternary Ti-Al-N thin films

Ternary Ti-Al-N films were deposited onto Al2O3 (0001) substrates by reactive cosputtering from elemental Ti and Al targets and analyzed by in situ and ex situ x-ray scattering, Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The deposition parameters were set to values that yield Ti:Al:N ratios of 2:1:1 and 4:1:3 at room temperature. 2TiAlN depositions at 675 degrees C result in epitaxial Ti2AlN growth with basal planes parallel to the substrate surface. Nominal 4TiAl3N depositions at 675 degrees C and above, however, yield domain growth of TiN and Ti2AlN due to Al loss to the vacuum. Depositions at a lower temperature of 600 degrees C yield films with correct 4:1:3 stoichiometry, but Ti4AlN3 formation is prevented, supposedly by insufficient adatom mobility. Instead, an incoherent Tin+1AlNn structure with random twinned stacking sequences n is obtained that exhibits both basal plane orientations parallel and nearly perpendicular to the substrate interface. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy shows that in contrast to stoichiometric nitrides the Al is metallically bonded and hence acts as twinning plane within the Tin+1AlNn stackings. Domains with perpendicular basal plane orientation overgrow those with parallel orientation in a competitive growth mode. The resulting morphology is a combination of smooth-surface parallel-basal-plane-oriented domains interrupted by repeated facetted hillocklike features with perpendicular basal plane orientation. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3208065]