Morphology of epitaxial TiN(001) grown by magnetron sputtering

The evolution of surface morphology and microstructure during growth of single crystal TiN(001) is characterized by in situ scanning tunneling microscopy and postdeposition plan-view transmission electron microscopy. The TiN layers are grown on MgO at 650<$T$ <750 °C using reactive magnetron sputter deposition in pure ${\mathrm{N}}_{\mathrm{2}}.$ The surface morphology is dominated by growth mounds with an aspect ratio of ≃0.006; both the roughness amplitude and average separation between mounds approximately follow a power law dependence on film thickness, $t^{\alpha },$ with α=0.25±0.07. Island edges show dendritic geometries characteristic of limited step-edge mobility at the growth temperature.