Auger electron spectroscopy studies on TiN x

A new method for the determination of N/Ti ratio for TiN x samples has been proposed. High energy resolution Auger spectra recorded of the Ti L 3 M 23 M 45 peak have shown that on nitridation of Ti to TiN x a second peak, labelled the L 3 M 23 Hybrid peak, emerges at 3.9 eV below the L 3 M 23 M 45 peak in the raw data, which grows with the grade of nitridation. After a simple Shirley background correction a linear dependence between the ratio of the L 3 M 23 Hybrid/L 3 M 23 M 45 peak height of the raw data and the N/Ti ratio was found. This relation can be used directly to evaluate the nitrogen content of an unknown TiN x compound by recording only the Ti L 3 M 23 M 45 region. The changes of the L 3 M 23 M 45 peak structure have been interpreted and compared with earlier DOS calculations for Ti and TiN. Good agreement between experiment and theory was found, enabling a discussion of the valence electronic structure changes for Ti on nitridation.