New approach in the monitoring and characterization of titanium nitride thin films

In situ and ex situ spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), Raman spectroscopy (RS), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) have been used to study the stoichiometry and characterize TiN_x thin films deposited by magnetron sputtering at various stoichiometries. In situ SE can provide parameters, such as the plasma energy, that can be utilized for monitoring of the film stoichiometry. Besides plasma energy, optical phonon position in RS was also found to be a sensitive probe of TiN_x stoichiometry as detected by RS, XPS, and ex situ SE. Under these conditions, AES faces difficulties for reliable film characterization, and the complementary use of other techniques is required for determining the exact film stoichiometry.