Effects of N2 pressure on the structural and electrical properties of tin films deposited by laser molecular beam epitaxy

Titanium nitride (TiN) films were deposited on Si(100) substrates by laser molecular beam epitaxy(LMBE), and their properties of structure and resistivity with varying N₂ pressure were investigated. The results showed that atomically flat TiN films with layer-by-layer growth mode were successfully grown on Si(100) substrates, and (200) was the preferred orientation. With the increasing of N₂ pressure, the N/Ti ratio gradually increased and the diffraction peak progressively shifted towards lower diffraction angle. At pressure of 0.1 Pa, stoichiometric TiN film was formed which exhibited the characteristic diffraction angle of (200) plane. All films showed high reflectance to infrared spectrum and the films with overstoichiometry and understoichiometry had a higher resistivity owing to the surface particles and lattice distortion, while the stoichiometric TiN film depicted the minimum resistivity, around 19 μΩ·cm.