Effect of bias voltage on microstructure and mechanical properties of nanocrystalline TiN films deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering.

Nanocrystalline TiN films deposited under various bias voltages have been prepared by a reactive magnetron sputtering. The effect of bias voltage on the microstructural morphologies of the TiN films was characterized by FE-SEM and AFM. The texture of the TiN films was characterized by XRD. It is also observed that the crystallite size decreases with increasing bias voltages. However, rms roughness increases with increasing bias voltages. The changes in roughness and crystallite size in the TiN thin films are due to one or a combination of factors such as resputtering, ion bombardment, surface diffusivity and adatom mobility; the influence of each factor depends on the processing conditions.