Speaker
Description
Titanium nitride (TiN) thin films are widely used as protective coatings and functional materials because of their high hardness, excellent wear resistance, chemical stability, and compatibility with silicon-based electronic devices. In this study, TiN thin films were deposited on Si (100) substrates by reactive pulsed laser deposition using a titanium target in a nitrogen atmosphere at a background pressure of 10 mTorr. The influence of substrate temperature (200–600 °C) on the structural, mechanical, and tribological properties of the films was systematically investigated. Surface morphology and chemical composition were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), while nanoindentation, residual stress measurements, and pin-on-disk testing were employed to evaluate the mechanical and tribological performance of the coatings. The deposited TiN films exhibited dense and uniform microstructures with near-stoichiometric composition. Increasing the substrate temperature significantly enhanced the hardness of the coatings, indicating improved film quality and densification. The residual stress evolved from compressive to tensile with increasing deposition temperature, reflecting changes in the film growth mechanism. The tribological behavior was also found to be strongly dependent on the deposition conditions. These findings demonstrate that substrate temperature is a critical processing parameter for tailoring the microstructure and performance of TiN thin films deposited by reactive pulsed laser deposition, providing useful guidelines for the development of high-performance protective coatings and silicon-compatible functional thin films.