Preparation of Nanocrystalline TiN Film by Direct Nitridation of TiO_2 Film

At first, nanocrystalline TiO2 films were prepared by a sol-gel method on Al2O3 substrates. Then, nanocrystalline TiN films were successfully obtained by direct nitridation of the nano TiO2 films using NH3 as the reductant agent in a tube furnace. XRD, XPS and FE-SEM were used to study phase compositions and morphologies of the nanocrystalline TiN films. The results indicate that the best condition for preparing nanocrystalline TiN films by direct nitridation of films is nitridation temperature about 700℃ and nitridation duration of about 1h.