Low-temperature fabrication of plasmonic titanium nitride thin films by electron beam evaporation

Anindita Das; Yoshiko Nanao; Akhil  Rajan; Andrea Di Falco; Sebastian A. Schulz

doi:10.1088/2515-7647/adcddc

Low-temperature fabrication of plasmonic titanium nitride thin films by electron beam evaporation

Anindita Das, Yoshiko Nanao, Akhil Rajan, Andrea Di Falco, Sebastian A. Schulz^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Titanium nitride (TiN) is a refractory metal nitride compound with the potential to function as an alternative plasmonic material to gold, especially for high-power linear and nonlinear applications such as materials processing, telecommunications, and laser systems. This paper presents a simple, electron beam evaporation based deposition process to fabricate sub-100 nm TiN thin films at low temperatures. The dependence of optical properties and film thickness on deposition temperature was explored and it was observed that low-temperature annealing during deposition further enhances the plasmonic properties of the films. These results are essential for promoting the utilisation of highly metallic TiN thin films in plasmonic and photonic applications.

Original language	English
Article number	025032
Number of pages	7
Journal	Journal of Physics: Photonics
Volume	7
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7647/adcddc
Publication status	Published - 30 Apr 2025

Keywords

Titanium nitride
Electron beam evaporation
Refractory material
Plasmonics

Access to Document

10.1088/2515-7647/adcddcLicence: CC BY

Das_2025_JoPP_Low-temperature-plasmonic-titanium-nitride-thin-films_CC
© 2025 The Author(s). Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Final published version, 2.21 MBLicence: CC BY

1 Active
4 Finished

Controlling and integrating 2D magnetism: Controlling and integrating 2D magnetism in epitaxial van der Waals heterostructures
King, P. (PI) & Wahl, P. (CoI)
EPSRC
1/08/23 → 31/07/26
Project: Standard
Metasurfaces for Spatio-temporal Light M: Metasurfaces for Spatio-temporal light modulation
Schulz, S. A. (PI)
EPSRC
1/02/23 → 31/07/24
Project: Standard
Thin Film X-Ray Diffraction: Thin film x-ray diffraction
Wahl, P. (PI), Brown, C. T. A. (CoI), King, P. (CoI) & Rost, A. W. (CoI)
EPSRC
15/01/20 → 14/07/21
Project: Standard

Low-temperature fabrication of plasmonic titanium nitride thin films by electron beam evaporation (dataset)
Das, A. (Creator) & Schulz, S. A. (Creator), University of St Andrews, 6 May 2025
DOI: 10.17630/42a1d567-9e02-4916-8709-e2b4911c715c
Dataset

File

Cite this

@article{039136ae605f429dbad8e5be60dfc286,

title = "Low-temperature fabrication of plasmonic titanium nitride thin films by electron beam evaporation",

abstract = "Titanium nitride (TiN) is a refractory metal nitride compound with the potential to function as an alternative plasmonic material to gold, especially for high-power linear and nonlinear applications such as materials processing, telecommunications, and laser systems. This paper presents a simple, electron beam evaporation based deposition process to fabricate sub-100 nm TiN thin films at low temperatures. The dependence of optical properties and film thickness on deposition temperature was explored and it was observed that low-temperature annealing during deposition further enhances the plasmonic properties of the films. These results are essential for promoting the utilisation of highly metallic TiN thin films in plasmonic and photonic applications.",

keywords = "Titanium nitride, Electron beam evaporation, Refractory material, Plasmonics",

author = "Anindita Das and Yoshiko Nanao and Akhil Rajan and {Di Falco}, Andrea and Schulz, {Sebastian A.}",

note = "Funding: S.A.S. and A.D. acknowledge support from the EPSRC (EP/X018121/1). A.D.F. acknowledge support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (Grant Agreement No. 819346). Y. N. acknowledges funding through the Leverhulme Trust (Grant No. RPG-2023-256) and EPSRC (Grant No. EP/T023449/1), while A. R. acknowledges EPSRC Grants EP/X015556/1 and EP/R025169/1.",

year = "2025",

month = apr,

day = "30",

doi = "10.1088/2515-7647/adcddc",

language = "English",

volume = "7",

journal = "Journal of Physics: Photonics",

issn = "2515-7647",

publisher = "IOP Publishing Ltd.",

number = "2",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Low-temperature fabrication of plasmonic titanium nitride thin films by electron beam evaporation

AU - Das, Anindita

AU - Nanao, Yoshiko

AU - Rajan, Akhil

AU - Di Falco, Andrea

AU - Schulz, Sebastian A.

N1 - Funding: S.A.S. and A.D. acknowledge support from the EPSRC (EP/X018121/1). A.D.F. acknowledge support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (Grant Agreement No. 819346). Y. N. acknowledges funding through the Leverhulme Trust (Grant No. RPG-2023-256) and EPSRC (Grant No. EP/T023449/1), while A. R. acknowledges EPSRC Grants EP/X015556/1 and EP/R025169/1.

PY - 2025/4/30

Y1 - 2025/4/30

N2 - Titanium nitride (TiN) is a refractory metal nitride compound with the potential to function as an alternative plasmonic material to gold, especially for high-power linear and nonlinear applications such as materials processing, telecommunications, and laser systems. This paper presents a simple, electron beam evaporation based deposition process to fabricate sub-100 nm TiN thin films at low temperatures. The dependence of optical properties and film thickness on deposition temperature was explored and it was observed that low-temperature annealing during deposition further enhances the plasmonic properties of the films. These results are essential for promoting the utilisation of highly metallic TiN thin films in plasmonic and photonic applications.

AB - Titanium nitride (TiN) is a refractory metal nitride compound with the potential to function as an alternative plasmonic material to gold, especially for high-power linear and nonlinear applications such as materials processing, telecommunications, and laser systems. This paper presents a simple, electron beam evaporation based deposition process to fabricate sub-100 nm TiN thin films at low temperatures. The dependence of optical properties and film thickness on deposition temperature was explored and it was observed that low-temperature annealing during deposition further enhances the plasmonic properties of the films. These results are essential for promoting the utilisation of highly metallic TiN thin films in plasmonic and photonic applications.

KW - Titanium nitride

KW - Electron beam evaporation

KW - Refractory material

KW - Plasmonics

U2 - 10.1088/2515-7647/adcddc

DO - 10.1088/2515-7647/adcddc

M3 - Article

SN - 2515-7647

VL - 7

JO - Journal of Physics: Photonics

JF - Journal of Physics: Photonics

IS - 2

M1 - 025032

ER -

Low-temperature fabrication of plasmonic titanium nitride thin films by electron beam evaporation

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Projects

Controlling and integrating 2D magnetism: Controlling and integrating 2D magnetism in epitaxial van der Waals heterostructures

Metasurfaces for Spatio-temporal Light M: Metasurfaces for Spatio-temporal light modulation

Thin Film X-Ray Diffraction: Thin film x-ray diffraction

Datasets

Low-temperature fabrication of plasmonic titanium nitride thin films by electron beam evaporation (dataset)

Cite this