Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 90: Electronic structure III

O 90.7: Talk

Thursday, March 17, 2011, 18:45–19:00, WIL C107

Influence of Shake-Up Behaviour at Titanium Nitride Interfaces using AR-XPS — •Dominik Jaeger¹, Jörg Patscheider¹, and László Forró² — ¹Empa Dübendorf. Switzerland — ²EPFL, IPMC/SB, Switzerland

Nanocomposites that consist of nanometric titanium nitride grains surrounded by an amorphous silicon nitride tissue phase, exhibit extraordinary properties such as hardness and high oxidation resistance. They originate from the interplay of grain size, nature of the tissue phase and the interface strength. In the ample literature on those nanocomposites an experimental description of their interface is largely missing. This study presents investigations on the interfaces of TiN in contact with different overlayers. Two dimensional layer system is used to probe the interfaces. Different overlayers are deposited on oxygen-free TiN by Unbalanced Magnetron Sputtering. These interfaces are investigated by Angle Resolved X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (AR-XPS). To prevent contaminations at the interfaces, the samples have been transferred in situ between deposition and analysis. XPS spectra show for TiN a shake-up feature caused by extra-atomic relaxation processes. During this process electrons from the inner Ti2p shell are loosing energy due to inelastic scattering at higher occupied shells. This energy loss has been recorded for interfaces between TiN and Si3N4, Si, and AlN as overlayers. The shake-up intensities and energies provide information on the electronic states in the surrounding neighbourhood and thereby on the interfaces. The results will be discussed in terms of polarisation effects at these interfaces.