Heteroepitaxial TiN Films Grown by Reactive Ion Beam Epitaxy at Room Temperature

Reactive ion beam epitaxy with an extra-low energy N2 + ion beam and a Ti molecular beam has been employed to grow hetero-epitaxial TiN films on MgO substrates. The TiN film quality drastically depends on the N2 + kinetic energy. Epitaxial TiN films with a low resistivity about 16 µΩ·cm were obtained at a kinetic energy of 50 eV/atom even at room substrate temperature, which is the lowest epitaxial temperature so far. At an elevated temperature, epitaxial growth was observed at a wide kinetic energy range. Epitaxial growth mechanisms in low energy reactive ion beam deposition are discussed.