Influence of annealing on structural, morphological, compositional and surface properties of magnetron sputtered nickel-titanium thin films

NiTi thin films were deposited by DC magnetron sputtering from an equiatomic NiTi alloy target onto Si(1 0 0) substrates without intentional heating of the substrate. These films have been characterized for their structure, micro-structure, composition and surface characteristics by various analytical techniques.