Optical and Plasmonic Properties of High-Electron-Density Epitaxial and Oxidative Controlled Titanium Nitride Thin Films
The present paper reports on the fabrication, detailed structural characterizations, and theoretical modeling of titanium nitride (TiN) and its isostructural oxide derivative, titanium oxynitride (TiNO) thin films that have excellent plasmonic properties and that also have the potential to overcome the limitation of noble metal and refractory metals. The TiNO films deposited at 700 °C in high vacuum conditions have the highest reflectance (<i>R</i> = ∼ 95%), largest negative dielectric constant (ε<sub>1</sub> = -161), and maximal plasmonic figure of merit (FoM = -ε<sub>1</sub>/ε<sub>2</sub>) of 1.2, followed by the 600 °C samples deposited in a vacuum (<i>R</i> = ∼ 85%, ε<sub>1</sub> = -145, FoM = 0.8) and 700 °C-5 mTorr sample (<i>R</i> = ∼ 82%, ε<sub>1</sub> = -8, FoM = 0.3). To corroborate our experimental observations, we calculated the phonon dispersions and Raman active modes of TiNO by using the virtual crystal approximation. From the experimental and theoretical studies, a multilayer optical model has been proposed for the TiN/TiNO epitaxial thin films for obtaining individual complex dielectric functions from which many other optical parameters can be calculated. The advantages of oxide derivatives of TiN are the continuation of similar free electron density as in TiN and the acquisition of additional features such as oxygen-dependent semiconductivity with a tunable bandgap.
Authors
- D. Kumar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5131-5131)
- R. Soyoung Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7912-7351)
- Mengxin Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2756-9021)
- Shyam Aravamudhan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9968-7188)
- Geoffroy Hautier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1754-2220)
- Sheilah Cherono (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8487-2379)
- Johannes Mahl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0989-8665)
- Ethan J. Crumlin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3132-190X)
- Jiongzhi Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9841-7477)
- Tanja Cuk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1635-2946)
- C. Martin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4399-0369)
- J. David Schall (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3694-9934)
- Swapnil Nalawade (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-9326-3399)
- V. Crăciun
- M. Bǎlǎceanu
- Junko Yano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6308-9071)
- Ikenna Chris‐Okoro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-8042-1277)
- Wisdom Akande
- Lei Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7584-0184)
Institutions
- Dartmouth College (US)
- University of Science and Technology (YE)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- Ramapo College (US)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- University of Colorado System (US)
- North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (US)
- Horia Hulubei National Institute for R and D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (RO)
- National Institute for Laser Plasma and Radiation Physics (RO)
- NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (US)
- Dartmouth Hospital (GB)
- Universitatea Națională de Știință și Tehnologie Politehnica București (RO)
- The College of New Jersey (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
- Published
- 2025-02-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.4c06969
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Semiconductor materials and devices
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 5.11
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Basic Energy Sciences