Optimization of Energy Scope for Titanium Nitride Films Grown by Ion Beam-Assisted Deposition

The deposited energy during film growth with ion bombardment, correlated to the atomic displacement on the surface monolayer and the underlying bulk, has been calculated by a simplified ion-solid interaction model under binary collision approximation. The separated damage energies caused by Ar ion, different for the surface and the bulk, have been determined under the standard collision cross section and a well-defined surface and bulk atom displacement threshold energy of titanium nitride (TiN). The optimum energy scope shows that the incident energy of Ar⁺ around 110eV for TiN (111) and 80eV for TiN (200) effectively enhances the mobility of adatom on surface but excludes the damage in underlying bulk. The theoretical prediction and the experimental result are in good agreement in low energy ion beam-assisted deposition.