Nano Structure and Electrical Properties of Annealed Ti Thin Films

Ti films of 66.8 nrn were deposited. using resistive heat method and post-annealed at different temperatures withflow of oxygen. the nano-structures of the films were obtained using x-ray diffraction (xrd) and atomic forcemicroscopy (afm). the results showed an initial reduction of the grain size at 373 k annealing temperature andincrease of the grain size at higher temperatures, the cause of this was due to the reaction of oxygen with ti atomswhich breaks up the ti grains and hence needle-like features form. the increase of annealing temperature to 473and 573 k enhances the activation processes, hence diffusion effect and results in larger grains. the resistivity of thefilm increased with annealing temperature, which is due to competition between increased diffusion rate and theincreased reaction rate of oxygen with ti atoms, the latter increases the resistivity of the thin tilm while the formerdecreases its the resistivity.