Study of the Competitive Diffusion at 525 °C of Nitrogen and Oxygen in Sputtered β-Tantalum Films

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Abstract
Thin β-tantalum films, from 200 Å to 1 μ thick, deposited on silicon by diode sputtering in argon at 10−2 Torr, were treated at 525 °C in nitrogen containing well-defined quantities of oxygen and water traces in the parts per million range. The composition of the films, the nitrogen and oxygen incorporation kinetics, were studied by the observation of the nuclear reactions O(d,p) 16O*17 and N(d,α) 14C12 and by ion microprobe mass spectrometry. These experiments enabled us to establish the following points: (i) The predominant initial step of the process corresponds to a rapid (some minutes) nitrogen filling of the film with an almost uniform depth distribution up to an N/Ta ratio of 0.16. (ii) In a competitive process, a simultaneous incorporation of oxygen takes place and imposes the out diffusion of the nitrogen. (iii) Surface oxide film interference colors appear only after the nitrogen removal.

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