Substrate bias dependence of the structure and internal stress of TiN films deposited by the filtered cathodic vacuum arc

TiN films were deposited by a new offplane double bend filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique at low deposition pressure with a very high deposition rate. The surface morphology, structure, and internal stress in the deposited films were strongly dependent on the substrate bias. As substrate bias was increased to -100 V, the surface roughness decreased to a minimum, the preferred orientation changed gradually from (200) to (111), and the internal stress increased to a maximum. At a bias above -200 V, a decrease of lattice perfection and increase of lattice defect density with substrate bias were clearly observed.