The effect of plasma immersion ion implantation on the contact pressure and composition of titanium nitride thin films

The effect of plasma immersion ion implantation on the indentation hardness as measured by contact pressure and composition of cathodic arc deposited TiN thin films was investigated. According to Auger electron spectroscopy results, increasing the pulse bias voltage up to 18 kV has little effect on the composition of the TiN films. The nano-indentation hardness of the films was found to decrease linearly with increasing pulse bias voltage as the intrinsic stress within the films decreases. A model, based on the columnar microstructure observed in our TiN films, has been developed to explain the dependence of indentation hardness on stress.