Atomic force microscopy study of surface roughening of sputter-deposited TiN thin films

The kinetic surface roughening of TiN thin films sputter-deposited on silicon substrates at room temperature was studied. Scaling analyses were made by surface measurements of atomic force microscopy (AFM). The roughness exponent alpha and growth exponent beta that characterize scaling behaviors of surface growth were calculated using the height-height correlation function H(r) and power spectra P(f). The exponent values of alpha=similar to0.98 and beta=similar to0.28 indicated that the surface growth behavior of sputtered TiN thin films could be adequately explained by a simple linear growth model showing surface diffusion as a smoothing effect and shot noise as a roughening mechanism. An inverse Fourier transformation technique was also used to generate the evolution of theoretical surface profiles that showed good agreement with AFM measurements. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.