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Thin films; atomic force microscopy (AFM); surfaces; hardness; X-ray diffraction; electron microscopy.

This paper reports effect of thickness on the properties of titanium (Ti) film deposited on Si/SiO₂ (100) substrate using two different methods: d.c. magnetron sputtering and electron beam (e-beam) evaporation technique. The structural and morphological characterization of Ti film were performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). XRD pattern revealed that the films deposited using d.c. magnetron sputtering have HCP symmetry with preferred orientation along (002) plane, while those deposited with e-beam evaporation possessed fcc symmetry with preferred orientation along (200) plane. The presence of metallic Ti was also confirmed by XPS analysis. FESEM images depicted that the finite sized grains were uniformly distributed on the surface and AFM micrographs revealed roughness of the film. The electrical resistivity measured using four-point probe showed that the film deposited using d.c. magnetron sputtering has lower resistivity of ∼13 𝜇 𝛺 cm than the film deposited using e-beam evaporation technique, i.e. ∼60 𝜇 𝛺 cm. The hardness of Ti films deposited using d.c. magnetron sputtering has lower value (∼7.9 GPa) than the film deposited using e-beam technique (∼9.4 GPa).

Nishat Arshi¹ Junqing Lu¹ Chan Gyu Lee¹ Jae Hong Yoon¹ Bon Heun Koo¹ Faheem Ahmed¹

1. School of Nano & Advanced Materials Engineering, Changwon National University, Changwon, Gyeongnam 641-773, Republic of Korea

Manuscript received

25 March 2012

Manuscript revised

1 August 2012