Thickness determination of thin polycrystalline film by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction

Thickness measurement based on the absorption of X-rays in thin films has been tested on polycrystalline titanium nitride film deposited on a tungsten carbide substrate. The intensity of three reflections from each material was measured for incidence angles of the primary beam ranging from 0.5 to 35 degrees. After experimental correction for texture effects, data from the TiN film and the WC substrate were fitted by known functions using least-squares routines. The substrate reflection intensity was found to be more suitable for determining the thickness of the overlaying thin film. The average thickness of TiN film (2.00 +/- 0.17 mum) determined from the substrate reflections was in fair agreement with the average value obtained from optical microscopy (2.2 +/- 0.8 mum). The thickness values determined from the TiN thin film reflections are very unreliable, due to high sensitivity of the measurements to disturbing instrumental and sample effects at small angles. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.