In-situ observation of self-cleansing phenomena during ultra-high vacuum anneal of transition metal nitride thin films: Prospects for non-destructive photoelectron spectroscopy | Zendy

Grzegorz Greczyński | Zendy; Lars Hultman | Zendy

Open Access

In-situ observation of self-cleansing phenomena during ultra-high vacuum anneal of transition metal nitride thin films: Prospects for non-destructive photoelectron spectroscopy

Author(s) -

Grzegorz Greczyński,

Lars Hultman

Publication year - 2016

Publication title -

applied physics letters

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 1.182

H-Index - 442

eISSN - 1077-3118

pISSN - 0003-6951

DOI - 10.1063/1.4968803

Subject(s) - x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , materials science , tin , nitride , titanium nitride , annealing (glass) , thin film , oxide , transition metal , epitaxy , recrystallization (geology) , ultra high vacuum , analytical chemistry (journal) , nanotechnology , metallurgy , chemical engineering , chemistry , layer (electronics) , biochemistry , engineering , catalysis , paleontology , chromatography , biology

Self-cleansing of transition metal nitrides is discovered to take place during ultra-high vacuum annealing of TiN, NbN, and VN thin films. Native oxide layers from air exposure disappear after isothermal anneal at 1000 degrees C. Also, for TiN, the Ti 2p and N 1s X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) recorded after the anneal are identical to those obtained from in-situ grown and analyzed epitaxial TiN(001). These unexpected effects are explained by oxide decomposition in combination with N-replenishing of the nitride during recrystallization. The finding opens up new possibilities for true bonding assignments through non-destructive XPS analyses, thus avoiding artefacts from Ar etching. (C) 2016 Author(s).

Funding Agencies|VINN Excellence Center Functional Nanoscale Materials (FunMat) [2005-02666]; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linkoping University (Faculty Grant SFO-Mat-LiU) [2009-00971]; Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation [2011.0143]; Aforsk Foundation [16-359]

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