Pulsed laser deposition of titanium nitride films on sapphire

We successfully deposited high-quality TiN films on c-plane sapphire by usi ng the pulsed laser deposition technique. TiN grew on sapphire with two in- plane epitaxial relationships: (111)(TiN)//(0001)(sapphire) and [101](TiN)/ /[1100](sapphire) or (111)(TiN)// (0001)(sapphire) and [101](TiN)//[1100](s apphire). The TiN unit cell showed a +/-30 degrees in-plane rotation for sa pphire. The misfit between the TiN film and the sapphire substrate was calc ulated by using the near coincidence site lattice approach. The deposited f ilms were analyzed by x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Rutherford backscattering or channeling spectromet ry, electrical, and spectrophotometric measurements. The dependence of the film's crystalline duality on the deposition temperature has been investiga ted. The full width half-maximum of the rocking curve of the TiN 111 peak w as 0.2-0.3 degrees. The minimum ion channeling was 5%, and the room tempera ture resistivity was as low as 13 mu Omega cm.