High-rate Deposition of Crystalline TiHfN Ultra-thin Films by Closed-field Dual-cathode DC Unbalanced Reactive Magnetron Sputtering without External Substrate Heating

High deposition rate titanium hafnium nitride (TiHfN) ultra-thin film deposition was successfully prepared by closed-field dual-cathode DC unbalanced reactive magnetron sputtering. All prepared films were polycrystalline. The morphology and atomic composition of the TiHfN ultra-thin film were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The columnar structure could be promoted by increasing the deposition time. Lastly, the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity was investigated by Rhodamine 6G (R6G) drop-dried TiHfN ultra-thin film surface. The TiHfN ultra-thin films deposited at 20 s were found to have a high SERS activity, whose detection of R6G molecule at 10-5 M. The result could open preliminary studies on ternary transition metal nitride (TTMN) thin films for the alternative plasmonic sensors as SERS chips.