A study on the characteristics of TiOxNy thin films with various nitrogen flow rate by PECVD method

TiOxNy thin films were deposited on Si(100) substrates at 500 °C using RF PECVD system. Titanium isopropoxide was used as precursor with different nitrogen flow rate to control nitrogen contents in the films. Changes of chemical states of constituent elements in the deposited films were examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The data showed that the nitrogen content ratio was increased with increasing nitrogen flow rate, also the binding energy shift toward high energy side. The characteristics of film growth orientation and structure as well as morphology were also analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron diffraction (TED), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The film growth orientation, structure, and morphology were changed by increasing nitrogen flow rate. Nano-indentation experiments showed strong dependency on the composition of nitrogen and nano-structure in the hardness range of between 8 and 16 GPa.