Characterization of Titanium Nitride thin films Sputtered at Room Temperature

Thin film titanium nitride (TiN) has become widely used in photon detection with microwave kinetic inductance detectors and recently as resonant structures in superconducting quantum information circuits. The attractive properties of the material are its widely tunable critical temperature, large surface inductance, and low losses at microwave frequencies when incorporated into resonant circuits. We report on thin films of TiN sputter-deposited on intrinsic silicon substrates at room temperature for various nitrogen flow rates and deposition pressures. Characterization of the inductance and microwave losses in lumped-element resonators fabricated from these films will also be discussed.