Growth mechanism for chromium nitride films deposited by magnetron and triode sputtering methods

In the present work CrN films were deposited by magnetron and triode sputtering methods. For the films obtained by both deposition techniques the evolution of the structure and stress versus thickness was studied by a set of analysis methods (e.g. Scanning Electron Microscopy SEM, Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy STM, X-Ray Diffraction XRD, stress measurements). For CrN films deposited by magnetron sputtering a peak of stress appears at a given thickness and the growth direction changes according to the thickness. First, we have tried to understand the behaviour of the intrinsic stress by relating it to their structure. Second, we have explained the observed growth model by a combination between the models of Rickerby and Hones. Finally, we checked this model by a comparison of the films obtained by magnetron and triode sputtering techniques. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.