Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2017) 132: 520
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2017-11801-5

Regular Article

Studies of the micromorphology of sputtered TiN thin films by autocorrelation techniques

¹ University of Silesia, Faculty of Computer Science and Materials Science, Institute of Informatics, Department of Biomedical Computer Systems, Będzińska 39, 41-205, Sosnowiec, Poland
² Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, The Directorate of Research, Development and Innovation Management (DMCDI), Constantin Daicoviviu Street, no. 15, Cluj-Napoca, 400020, Cluj county, Romania
³ Vacuum Technology Group, ACECR - Sharif Branch, Tehran, Iran
⁴ Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), 1650 Boulevard Lionel - Boulet, Varennes, Canada
⁵ Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL), Facultad de Ciencias Físico Matemáticas (FCFM), Av. Universidad s/n, San Nicolás de los Garza Nuevo León, Mexico
⁶ Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran
⁷ Young Researchers and Elite Club, Arak Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran
⁸ Physics and Accelerators Research School, Nuclear Sciences and Technology Research Institute, Tehran, Iran

^* e-mail: azinahmadpurian@gmail.com

Received: 14 April 2017
Accepted: 15 November 2017
Published online: 14 December 2017

Abstract

Autocorrelation techniques are crucial tools for the study of the micromorphology of surfaces: They provide the description of anisotropic properties and the identification of repeated patterns on the surface, facilitating the comparison of samples. In the present investigation, some fundamental concepts of these techniques including the autocorrelation function and autocorrelation length have been reviewed and applied in the study of titanium nitride thin films by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The studied samples were grown on glass substrates by reactive magnetron sputtering at different substrate temperatures (from to , and their micromorphology was studied by AFM. The obtained AFM data were analyzed using MountainsMap Premium software obtaining the correlation function, the structure of isotropy and the spatial parameters according to ISO 25178 and EUR 15178N. These studies indicated that the substrate temperature during the deposition process is an important parameter to modify the micromorphology of sputtered TiN thin films and to find optimized surface properties. For instance, the autocorrelation length exhibited a maximum value for the sample prepared at a substrate temperature of , and the sample obtained at presented a maximum angle of the direction of the surface structure.