Raman and ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy of titanium chromium nitride thin films

ABSTRACT

Titanium chromium nitride (TiCrN) films were prepared under various nitrogen flow rates (7–18 sccm) via co-sputtering. It was argued that the target poisoning effect governs the deposition process in nitrogen-rich atmospheres. The observed X-ray diffraction patterns suggested that the crystal structure of TiCrN coatings is a cubic close-packed (TiCr)N solid solution with (111) crystalline planes. The patterns also implied that the increased nitrogen content is accompanied by a tendency towards crystallite size enlargement. In addition to the main vibrational transitions, the micro-Raman spectroscopy detected the Raman third-order vibrational transition (2A + O) and a peak corresponding to one of the Raman second-order transitions (A + O). It was also revealed that the area under the peaks corresponding to chromium nitride first-order and second-order acoustic vibrational transitions increase with the increase in the nitrogen content of the samples. Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy showed that the coatings can have a potential application in under-marine UV photodetector designs.

KEYWORDS:

• Titanium chromium nitride
• micro-Raman spectroscopy
• ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy
• co-sputtering

Acknowledgment

We gratefully acknowledge the partial support of this work from the Research Council of the Iran University of Science and Technology. Also, we would like to thank the support from the Nanostructured Coatings Company, especially Mr. Mahdavi and Mrs. Esmaeely fard for their technical assistance for layers preparation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).