Chemical shift of electron energy-loss near-edge structure on the nitrogen K-edge and titanium L3-edge at TiN/Ti interface.

We investigated the chemical shift of the electron energy-loss near-edge structure (ELNES) for the nitrogen K-edge and titanium L3-edge measured from the interface region between a titanium nitride layer and a titanium layer. Both the titanium nitride and titanium layers were prepared by a sputtering method. Elemental analysis for nitride and titanium in the vicinity of the interface region was performed using a standard technique in electron energy-loss spectroscopy. It was demonstrated that both the ELNES of nitrogen K-edge and titanium L3-edge presented the chemical shift, more or less, depending on the composition of TiNx. The experimental findings were interpreted using a first-principles band structure calculation. The chemical shifts of nitrogen K-edge and titanium L3-edge can be used as fingerprinting for readily distinguishing the composition of TiNx.