Lateral texture evolution during formation of TiN by MePIIID

Titanium nitride was formed by metal plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition using a vacuum arc with a Ti cathode and a nitrogen backfill of the vacuum chamber. A circular substrate with a diameter of 6 cm was mounted at a distance of 39 cm from the cathode. For the substrate oriented perpendicular to the plasma stream, a deposition rate independent of the position and nearly independent of the pulse voltage was obtained. A variation of the orientation of the TiN crystallites with increasing pulse voltage was observed; [220] at 1 kV pulse at 9% duty cycle, and [200] for pulse voltages from 3 to 10 kV. Additionally, a tilt of the crystallites of up to 25° from the surface normal is measured towards the edge of the substrate. This is related with the changing angle of incidence of the ions. Using a substrate tilted at 45° towards the plasma flow, a different behaviour is observed. First, the deposition rate decreases by 40% and second, the fibre texture is changed to a biaxial texture near the edge, caused by the lower symmetry of the systems.