Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The crystallization behavior of amorphous TiOxNy (x>>y) thin films was investigated by in-situ transmission electron microscopy. The Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kozolog (JMAK) theory is used to determine the Avrami exponent, activation energy, and the phase velocity pre-exponent. Addition of nitrogen inhibits diffusion, increasing the nucleation temperature, while decreasing the growth activation energy. Kinetic variables extracted from individual crystallites are compared to JMAK analysis of the fraction transformed and a change of 6 percent in the activation energy gives agreement between the methods. From diffraction patterns and index of refraction the crystallized phase was found to be predominantly anatase.