Abstract: At first, nanocrystalline TiO2 films were prepared by a sol-gel method on Al₂O₃ substrates. Then, nanocrystalline TiN films were successfully obtained by direct nitridation of the nano TiO₂ films using NH₃ as the reductant agent in a tube furnace. XRD, XPS and FE-SEM were used to study phase compositions and morphologies of the nanocrystalline TiN films. The results indicate that the best condition for preparing nanocrystalline TiN films by direct nitridation of films is nitridation temperature about 700℃ and nitridation duration of about 1h.

Key words: direct nitridation, nanocrystalline TiN film, Ti0₂ film