Influence of deposition temperature on the structure and internal stress of TiN films deposited by filtered cathodic vacuum arc

TiN films were deposited by an off-plane double bend filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique. The surface morphology, crystral structure, and internal stress were greatly affected by the deposition temperature. AFM images showed that the rms roughness and grain size increase linearly with increasing deposition temperature. XRD results indicate the increase of grain size and the gradual development of crystallographic orientation from (110) preferred orientation growth to (200) preferred orientation growth as deposition temperature is increased. The internal stress decreased linearly from 9.88 to 4.30 GPa as deposition temperature is increased from 50 to 450°C. The decrease of internal stress in the films was attributed to the increase of atom mobility and the change of crystallographic orientation.