Single Crystalline Oxygen-free Titanium Nitride by XPS

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra are presented, which are obtained from an oxygen-free single crystalline (sc-) titanium nitride (TiN) sample. The investigated film has been grown on a magnesium oxide (MgO) single crystal with the ( 001) orientation. Unbalanced Reactive Magnetron Sputter deposition was used to deposit the TiN film in an argon/nitrogen atmosphere at 5 x 10(-3) mbar and a temperature of 800 degrees C. The sample has been transferred in situ from the deposition chamber to the XPS device in order to prevent surface oxidation of the sample. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Rutherford backscattering (RBS) and angle resolved (AR-) XPS have been used to characterize the sample in detail. This work is dedicated to the XPS characterization of a representative oxygen-free sc-TiN sample. Detailed scans are presented and discussed for the Ti 2p, O 1s, N 1s, Ti 2s, valence band and Ti LMM regions. The spectra contain shake-ups, surface and bulk plasmons, that can be separated and quantified by the presented evaluation procedure. (C) 2013 American Vacuum Society.