Interface structure of face-centered-cubic-Ti thin film grown on 6H–SiC substrate

A titanium thin film was deposited on the flat (0001) face of a 6H–SiC by electron beam evaporation at room temperature in a vacuum of 5.1 × 10⁻⁸ Pa. The Ti film was epitaxially grown on the surface, and the interface between Ti and SiC was characterized by high-resolution electron microscopy. It was found that the structure of the deposited titanium is face-centered cubic (fcc), although bulk titanium metal usually has a hexagonal close-packed or body-centered cubic crystal structure. We believe that the unusual fcc structure of Ti thin film is due to the high adhesion of the film to the substrate and the high degree of coherency between them. The orientation relationship of the fcc-Ti/6H–SiC interface was (111)_fcc-Ti//(0001)_6H–SiC and [110]_fcc-Ti//[1120]_6H−SiC. Preliminary calculations indicate that this orientation relationship maximizes the lattice coherency across the interface.