Coatings of tantalum nitride with various compositions were deposited on silicon substrates using unbalanced reactive magnetron sputtering. An optical emission spectrometer was used to monitor the ratio of tantalum to nitrogen particles in the plasma in real time. The coatings were characterized using x-ray diffraction (XRD), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The primary nitride phases (, , ) in the films were determined using XRD and XPS. The elemental composition was revealed from XPS measurements. The refractive indices were deduced from analysis of the SE data, which were subsequently simulated using the Drude–Lorentz model. The resistivity and electron mean free paths were deduced from this simulation and were correlated to the film composition and microstructure. The resistivity increased whereas the electron mean free path decreased with an increase in nitrogen content or a decrease in grain size.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
September 2004
Research Article|
September 20 2004
Optical properties of tantalum nitride films fabricated using reactive unbalanced magnetron sputtering Available to Purchase
S. M. Aouadi;
S. M. Aouadi
a)
Department of Physics, Southern Illinois University
, Carbondale, Illinois 62901-4401
Search for other works by this author on:
M. Debessai
M. Debessai
Department of Physics, Southern Illinois University
, Carbondale, Illinois 62901-4401
Search for other works by this author on:
S. M. Aouadi
a)
Department of Physics, Southern Illinois University
, Carbondale, Illinois 62901-4401
M. Debessai
Department of Physics, Southern Illinois University
, Carbondale, Illinois 62901-4401a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; electronic mail: [email protected]
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 22, 1975–1979 (2004)
Article history
Received:
April 16 2004
Accepted:
June 07 2004
Citation
S. M. Aouadi, M. Debessai; Optical properties of tantalum nitride films fabricated using reactive unbalanced magnetron sputtering. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 1 September 2004; 22 (5): 1975–1979. https://doi.org/10.1116/1.1778410
Download citation file:
Pay-Per-View Access
$40.00
Sign In
You could not be signed in. Please check your credentials and make sure you have an active account and try again.
Citing articles via
What more can be done with XPS? Highly informative but underused approaches to XPS data collection and analysis
Donald R. Baer, Merve Taner Camci, et al.
Low-resistivity molybdenum obtained by atomic layer deposition
Kees van der Zouw, Bernhard Y. van der Wel, et al.
Perspective on improving the quality of surface and material data analysis in the scientific literature with a focus on x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
George H. Major, Joshua W. Pinder, et al.
Related Content
Structural and mechanical properties of TaZrN films: Experimental and ab initio studies
J. Appl. Phys. (March 2006)
Electronic and optical properties of Ta 1 − x Zr x N films: Experimental and ab initio studies
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A (June 2005)
Real-time spectroscopic ellipsometry study of ultrathin diffusion barriers for integrated circuits
J. Appl. Phys. (October 2004)
Real-time spectroscopic ellipsometry study of Ta–Si–N ultrathin diffusion barriers
J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A (July 2005)
Reconstruction mechanisms of tantalum oxide coatings with low concentrations of silver for high temperature tribological applications
Appl. Phys. Lett. (November 2014)