Growth and characterization of titanium nitride nanowires on silicon substrate using pulsed laser deposition method for biological applications

The present work reports on the growth and characterization of titanium nitride (TiN) nanowires on silicon substrate using a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method. The TiN nanowires were grown on single crystal silicon substrate with (100) and (111) orientations at a range of substrate temperatures and under both nitrogen ambient and vacuum. The different orientation of silicon was chosen to see the effect of the substrate orientation on the growth of TiN nanowires. The laser energy entering the vacuum chamber to impinge the TiN target for nanowire deposition was varied from 70 to 80 mJ. The TiN nanowires samples were characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD). The diameter of the nanowires was observed to increase from 25 nm to 40 nm with an increase in laser beam energy entering the chamber. The shape and orientation of the nanowires was observed to be the same for (100) and (111) oriented silicon substrates as observed in SEM images. Corrosion tests were also conducted on the TiN nanowires.