Preparation and compositional analysis of sputtered TaN films

Abstract
TaNx films have been prepared by reactive sputtering at substrate temperatures of 20, 250, 500, and 750 °C. The structure of the films has been studied by x‐ray diffraction. The nitrogen portion of the compound has been determined by the nuclear reaction 14N(d,α)12C, whereas the amount of tantalum has been measured by Rutherford ion backscattering. Depending on the preparation conditions, superconductivity transition temperatures up to 10.8 °K have been observed. The ratio Ta/N of the superconducting films has been found to be between 0.9 and 1.1 and will be attributed to the fcc TaN phase.