Optical, electrical and mechanical properties of TiN thin film obtained from a TiO2 sol-gel coating and rapid thermal nitridation

This study reports the optical, electrical and mechanical properties of TiN films prepared by direct rapid thermal nitridation process from a photo-patternable TiO2 sol-gel layer. The sol-gel approach is compatible to non-planar and large substrates and allows the micro-nanotexturing of crystallized TiN surfaces in a significantly short time, large scale and at a lower cost compared to TiN layer deposition from existing and conventional processes (CVD, PVD, ALD...). In this paper, the optical measurements are carried out by optical spectroscopy in the UV, visible and near-IR region and by ellipsometry. The resistivity and the conductivity are estimated by four-point probe method, while hardness is characterized by nano-indentation experiments. The results indicate that the TiN thin film made by sol-gel method and rapid thermal nitridation are very promising for the manufacturing of optical metasurfaces devices or new plasmonic materials.

Automated summary

The study presents the optical, electrical, and mechanical properties of TiN films prepared by a sol-gel method and rapid thermal nitridation, which are promising for manufacturing optical metasurfaces devices or new plasmonic materials with shorter production time, large scale, and lower cost.