Intrinsic anomalous surface roughening of TiN films deposited by reactive sputtering

M. A. Auger, L. Vázquez, R. Cuerno, M. Castro, M. Jergel, and O. Sánchez
Phys. Rev. B 73, 045436 – Published 31 January 2006

Abstract

We study surface kinetic roughening of TiN films grown on Si(100) substrates by dc reactive sputtering. The surface morphology of films deposited for different growth times under the same experimental conditions were analyzed by atomic force microscopy. The TiN films exhibit intrinsic anomalous scaling and multiscaling. The film kinetic roughening is characterized by a set of local exponent values αloc=1.0 and βloc=0.39, and global exponent values α=1.7 and β=0.67, with a coarsening exponent of 1z=0.39. These properties are correlated to the local height-difference distribution function obeying power-law statistics. We associate this intrinsic anomalous scaling with the instability due to nonlocal shadowing effects that take place during thin-film growth by sputtering.

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  • Received 31 October 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.73.045436

©2006 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

M. A. Auger1,5, L. Vázquez1,*, R. Cuerno2, M. Castro3, M. Jergel4, and O. Sánchez1

  • 1Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid-CSIC, C\ Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz 3, E-28049 Cantoblanco, Madrid, Spain
  • 2Departamento de Matemáticas y Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Avenida de la Universidad 30, E-28911, Leganés, Madrid, Spain
  • 3Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos y Grupo de Dinámica No Lineal, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería (ICAI), Universidad Pontificia Comillas de Madrid, E-28015, Madrid, Spain
  • 4Institute of Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 9, 845 11 Bratislava 45, Slovak Republic
  • 5Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Metalúrgicas (CENIM-CSIC), Avda. Gregorio del Amo, 8, E-28040 Madrid, Spain

  • *Corresponding author. Electronic adress: lvb@icmm.csic.es

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Vol. 73, Iss. 4 — 15 January 2006

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