Studies of the micromorphology of sputtered TiN thin films by autocorrelation techniques

• Published in: European physical journal plus Vol. 132; no. 12; p. 520
• Main Authors: Smagoń, Kamil, Stach, Sebastian, Ţălu, Ştefan, Arman, Ali, Achour, Amine, Luna, Carlos, Ghobadi, Nader, Mardani, Mohsen, Hafezi, Fatemeh, Ahmadpourian, Azin, Ganji, Mohsen, Grayeli Korpi, Alireza
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-12-2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Applied and Technical Physics; Atomic; Atomic force microscopy; Autocorrelation functions; Complex Systems; Condensed Matter Physics; Glass substrates; Isotropy; Magnetron sputtering; Mathematical and Computational Physics; Molecular; Optical and Plasma Physics; Parameter modification; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Regular Article; Substrates; Surface properties; Surface structure; Theoretical; Thin films; Titanium nitride
• DOI: 10.1140/epjp/i2017-11801-5
• EISSN: 2190-5444

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Autocorrelation techniques are crucial tools for the study of the micromorphology of surfaces: They provide the description of anisotropic properties and the identification of repeated patterns on the surface, facilitating the comparison of samples. In the present investigation, some fundamental concepts of these techniques including the autocorrelation function and autocorrelation length have been reviewed and applied in the study of titanium nitride thin films by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The studied samples were grown on glass substrates by reactive magnetron sputtering at different substrate temperatures (from
25
∘
C
to
400
∘
C
, and their micromorphology was studied by AFM. The obtained AFM data were analyzed using MountainsMap Premium software obtaining the correlation function, the structure of isotropy and the spatial parameters according to ISO 25178 and EUR 15178N. These studies indicated that the substrate temperature during the deposition process is an important parameter to modify the micromorphology of sputtered TiN thin films and to find optimized surface properties. For instance, the autocorrelation length exhibited a maximum value for the sample prepared at a substrate temperature of
300
∘
C
, and the sample obtained at
400
∘
C
presented a maximum angle of the direction of the surface structure.