Analysis of TiN by charged particle beams: Nuclear reaction analysis, nuclear reaction broadening and Rutherford backscattering

Charged particle beams have been used to extract data both on the composition and also on the thickness of two series of TiN x films (about 5 and 2 μm thick respectively), where x varied from 0.3 to 1.0. The technique used were nuclear reaction analysis (NRA), resonance nuclear reaction broadening (NRB) and Rutherford backscattering, together with Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The data from the NRB depth profiles scale remarkably well with the results from AES. The NRA results have the greatest experimental uncertainty and also indicate a systematic error which is not understood. Both NRA and NRB can return reliable film thickness data. It is also demonstrated that TiC should not be used as a reference standard when analyzing TiN films by AES.