Local electric-field-induced oxidation of titanium nitride films

Nanometer-scale patterning of TiN films grown on SiO2 /Si( 001) has been de monstrated using the local electric-field-induced oxidation process with a conductive-probe atomic force microscope. The chemical composition of the m odified TiN region was determined by micro-Auger electron spectroscopy and was found to consist of Ti, some trace amount of N, and O, suggesting the f ormation of titanium oxynitride in the near surface region. The dependence of the oxide height on the sample bias voltage with a fixed scanning speed shows a nonlinear trend in the high electric field regime, indicating that the growth kinetics might be significantly different from previous studies using other film materials. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003- 6951(99)03208-8].