Electrical characterization of Ag:TiN thin films produced by glancing angle deposition

• Sputtered Ag-doped TiN thin films by the GLancing Angle Deposition, GLAD, technique.
• α angles from 40° to 80° with inclined, zigzag and spiral features were attained.
• Porous samples exhibit higher ρ293 K values than the denser ones.
• Dense coatings show lower and more stable ρT with increasing temperature.
• Ag segregation is perceivable in the 473–573 K interval.

Columnar Ag:TiN thin films were prepared by d.c. magnetron sputtering with a Ag content of ~10 at.% on silicon and glass substrates. The Glancing Angle Deposition, GLAD, technique was implemented to transform the typical columnar microstructure into the desired inclined, zigzag and spiral profiles. A periodic variation of the angle of incidence ‘α’ (40°, 60° and 80°) was applied to deposit Ag:TiN thin films with inclined, zigzag and spiral microstructures. The film's electrical properties were studied. Higher α values lead to more porous microstructures with column angle β varying from 13° (α=40°) to 30° (α=80°) for 8 zigzags. Resistivity, ρ, at 293 K or versus temperature was found to be connected to the porosity and β angles. The more compact films exhibited lower and more stable resistivity values than the more porous ones. Ag segregation and TiN columnar oxidation are favored by temperature and were also found to depend on the produced architectures.