SYNTHESIS OF(TI, AL)N FILMS BY ION-BEAM-ASSISTED DEPOSITION

(Ti, Al)N films were prepared by ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD). The films were synthesized by depositing Ti and Al metal vapour under simultaneous bombardment with nitrogen ions in the energy range of 0.2 -20 keV with the N/(Ti + Al) transport ratio in the range of 0.2-1.0. The films were formed on Si(111) wafers at room temperature. Structura l characterization of the films was performed with X-ray diffraction a nd selected area electron diffraction measurements. The crystalline st ructure of the (Ti0.7Al0.3)N films was found to be a metastable single -phase B1-NaCl structure and an interplanar distance d(200) decreased with increasing N/(Ti + Al) transport ratio. With increasing Al conten t, (Ti0.2Al0.8)N films revealed a two-phase mixture consisting of NaCl and wurtzite structure phases, The ion-beam-induced crystallization e ffects in the early stage of the single-phase (Ti0.7Al0.3)N film growt h was also examined using transmission electron microscopy. Preliminar y results were obtained for the samples prepared with 5 and 20 keV N i ons with transport ratio kept constant at 0.5, which suggests that the ion energy can significantly affect the crystallite growth but has le ss effects on the nucleation site density.