Skip to main content

Titanium metal vs. Titanium Nitride (TiN)

Line plots of the Ti L2,3 edge for Ti metal vs TiN.
The first two peaks in the spectra are the Ti L3 and L2 edges respectively. Even for the metal, the L3/L2 branching ratio deviates from the 2:1 statistical ratio, and as is typical for early transition metal elements, the L3 edge is less intense than the L2 edge. The actual peak ratio is sensitive to the sample thickness because of plural scattering by plasmons, so it is better to track the relative energy shift of the peaks when looking to infer chemical changes

By: Lena Fitting Kourkoutis

Microscope: FEI Tecnai T20

Energy Resolution: 1.0eV