Reactive Sputter Deposition of nc-TiN/a-Si_3N_4 Nanocomposite Films in a Magnetized Inductively Coupled Plasma

A novel magnetized plasma CVD and PVD combined technique was developed aiming at synthesizing nanocomposite films. The nanocrystalline nc-TiN/amorphous a-Si3N4 nanocom-posite film was satisfactorily fabricated onto silicon wafer substrates by reactively sputtering a TiSi alloyed target in a magnetized inductively coupled radio-frequency argon/nitrogen plasma. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) were utilized to characterize the film structurally and compositionally. XRD, XPS and HRTEM investigations evidently revealed that the film was nanocomposite consisting basically of ~3nm TiN nanocrystallites in an amorphous Si3N4 matrix.