Advanced Nitrides by Design. Synchrotron XRD and TEM microanalyses were used to determine interfacial reaction paths and mechanisms. The results allowed functional design of dramatically improved diffusion barriers.

Novel semiconductors, superconductors, and corrosion-resistant materials have been developed recently through nanoscale research on transition metal nitrides. J. E. Greene, I. Petrov, and colleagues at the University of Illinois Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, with Office of Science support, combined theoretical modeling with fundamental growth and characterization experiments to improve the basic mechanical and electrical properties of nitrides. They developed new processes for depositing these materials with control of atomic-scale reaction and diffusion, thereby designing whole families of alloys with unique properties that are impossible to achieve under equilibrium conditions. To achieve these properties, it was necessary to control grain size and texture on a scale on the order of 10 nanometers (nm), and to achieve interfacial widths of 0.1 nm to 1.0 nm. This work has many applications and has been recognized by many awards, including the 1999 David Turnbull Lectureship of the Materials Research Society, the 1998 David Adler Prize from the American Physical Society, and the Tage Erlanger Prize in Physics (the second-ranking Swedish prize in science after the Nobel Prize).

Scientific Impact: This work extended the science of transition metal nitrides, making possible the design of entirely new materials. These achievements also demonstrate the value of research on the nanoscale, an emerging field of great importance.

Social Impact: Transition metal nitrides already have practical uses; titanium aluminum nitride, for example, has become ubiquitous in wear-, corrosion-, and diffusion-resistant coatings for products such as cutting tools. The new alloys have enabled the use of copper interconnects in integrated circuits through the creation of improved diffusion barriers, thus paving the way for a new generation of faster computer chips.

Reference: J. S. Chun, I. Petrov, and J.E. Greene, "Dense fully 111-textured TiN diffusion barriers: Enhanced lifetime through microstructure control during layer growth" J. Appl. Phys., 86 3633 (1999).

D. Gall, I. Petrov, P. Desjardins, and J.E. Greene, "Microstructural evolution and Poisson ratio of epitaxial ScN grown on TiN(001)/MgO(001) by ultrahigh vacuum reactive magnetron sputter deposition" J. Appl. Phys., 86 5524 (1999).

URL: http://www.aps.org/praw/adler/98winner.html
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SC-Funding Office: Office of Basic Energy Sciences