UHV reactive evaporation growth of titanium nitride thin films, looking for multipactor effect suppression in space applications

In this work, an ultra-high vacuum reactive evaporation procedure has been tested and optimized for the growth of TiN thin films, throwing very good results both in composition of the TiN layers and secondary emission yield values and performance. Stoichiometry and composition are analyzed by means of X-ray photoemission spectroscopy which, together with the secondary electron emission measurements, allow us determine the appropriate growth parameters in order to obtain in a reproducible manner optimum results towards the multipactor effect suppression. After refining the growth on test layers, several waveguide pieces, specially designed and constructed for testing multipactor level (maximum RF power attainable without multipactor discharge), have been coated with TiN films following those optimized growth conditions.