Effects of Vanadium Content on Structure and Chemical State of TiVN Films Prepared by Reactive DC Magnetron Co-Sputtering

Teerawit Deeleard, Surasing Chaiyakun, Artorn Pokaipisit, Pichet Limsuwan

Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand; Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics, Commission on Higher Education, Bangkok, Thailand.
Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics, Commission on Higher Education, Bangkok, Thailand.
Vacuum Technology and Thin Film Research Laboratory, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Burapha University, Chonburi, Thailand; Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics, Commission on Higher Education, Bangkok, Thailand.

DOI: 10.4236/msa.2013.49068                

Abstract

TiVN films were deposited on Si(100) wafers without external heating and biasing by reactive dc magnetron co-sputtering. Titanium and vanadium metals were used as sputtering targets. Ar and N₂ gases were used as sputtering gas and reactive gas, respectively. The flow rates of Ar and N₂ were 8 and 4 sccm, respectively. The Ti sputtering current (I_Ti) was kept constant at 0.6 Aand V sputtering current (I_V) was varied from 0.4 to1.0 A. The deposition time for all the deposited films was 30 min. The effects of V sputtering current on the structure, surface and cross-sectional morphologies, and chemical composition and chemical state of the films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. It was found that all the prepared film formed (Ti,V)N solid solution. The lattice parameter was found to decrease while crystallite size, RMS roughness and film thickness increased with increasing V sputtering current. High resolution XPS spectra of the Ti 2p, V 2p and N 1s revealed that the fraction of Ti-N and V-N bonds increased as the V sputtering current increased. However, the V-N bond was observed only at a high V sputtering current.

Keywords

TiVN Film; Solid Solution; DC Magnetron Co-Sputtering

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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