Evolution of nanoscale texture in ultrathin TiN films

We investigate the evolution of texture and grain morphology in fine-grained TiN thin films using cross correlation of dark-field images obtained using annular objective apertures with radii that correspond to different low index TiN reflections. This technique enables parallel analyses of the orientations of thousands of grains, with a spatial resolution of order 10 nm. Preferred grain orientations were determined for 40 and 100 nm thick TiN layers grown on ${\mathrm{SiO}}_{\mathrm{2}}$ by magnetically unbalanced reactive magnetron sputter deposition. We find that no single orientation is dominant in the 40 nm films but that a 〈100〉 texture has developed by the time these films reach 100 nm in thickness.