Abstract
Pure titanium nitride films with stoichiometric composition were grown by a reactive r. f. magnetron sputtering of titanium target in a mixture of argon and nitrogen. Considerable phenomenon of hyseresis in the syntheses of the deposited films was observed depending on the nitrogen pressure. The stoichiometric TiN films could be prepared in a particular pressure region of nitrogen in the hysteresis process. Structure, micro-hardness and chemical composition of deposited films were examined by X-ray diffraction, micro-vickers hardness tester, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The stoichiometric TiN films had a color of bright-gold and were strongly oriented in (200) face with lattice parameter of 0.426 nm. The micro-vickers hardness of TiN films was approximately 2000 kgf/mm2 which was nearly same as that of the TiN bulk material.
