Effects of sputtering and assisting ions on the orientation of titanium nitride films fabricated by ion beam assisted sputtering deposition from metal target

Ion beam assisted titanium nitride (TiN) film has attracted much attention because its fast texture and high conductivity can be effectively applied in all-conductive superconducting coated conductor. In this work, TiN films were prepared by ion beam sputtering deposition from a metal titanium target. Effects of sputtering ion energy, assisting ion energy, assisting ion current and deposition temperature on the orientation and surface morphology were analyzed. The results indicate that assisting ion is an important factor in orientation selection, and high assisting ions and low assisting ion current could enhance the crystallinity. However, too high assisting ion energy and current can destroy the crystallinity in IBAD-TiN. This orientation selection can be attributed to the energy exchange between assisting ions and adatoms. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.