Effect of thermal annealing and Al2O3-interlayer on intermixing in the TiN/SiO2/Si structure

The effect of post deposition annealing and Al2O3 interlayer introduced between the film and substrate on the nitrogen content in TiN films in TiN/SiO2/Si structures were studied using near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. It was established that: (i) the structure of the studied films corresponds to TiN1−xOx; (ii) annealing the system insignificantly decreases the concentration of the oxygen in the film; (iii) an Al2O3 interlayer prevents diffusion of oxygen from SiO2 and supports high nitrogen content in the TiN-film.