The properties of TiN ultra-thin films grown on SiO2 substrate by reactive high power impulse magnetron sputtering under various growth angles

• TiN films were grown on SiO2 by HiPIMS and dcMS under various growth angles.
• Influence of growth angle α = 0–90° on deposition rate and film quality was studied.
• The HiPIMS process produces denser and smoother films for all growth angles.
• At α = 0°, the growth rate of HiPIMS is 25% of dcMS while it is 50% at 90°.
• The HiPIMS grown films remain poly-crystalline for all growth angles.

Thin TiN films were grown on SiO2 by reactive high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) and conventional dc magnetron sputtering (dcMS) while varying the angle between the target and the substrate surface from 0° (on-axis growth) to 90° (off-axis growth). Surface morphology and structural characterization were carried out using X-ray diffraction and reflection methods and the film properties were compared. The dcMS process shows higher growth rate than the HiPIMS process for on-axis grown films but the dcMS growth rate drops drastically for off-axis growth while the HiPIMS growth rate decreases slowly with increased angle between target and substrate for off-axis growth and becomes comparable to the dcMS growth rate. The dcMS grown films exhibit angle dependence in the density and surface roughness while the HiPIMS process creates denser and smoother films that are less angle dependent in all aspects. It was observed that the HiPIMS grown films remain poly-crystalline for all angles of rotation while the dcMS grown films are somewhat amorphous after 60°. The [111] and [200] grain sizes are comparable to the total film thickness in the HiPIMS grown films for all angles of rotation. In the case of dcMS, the [111], [200] and [220] grain sizes are roughly of the same size and much smaller than the total thickness for all growth angles except at 60° and higher.