The mechanical properties and morphology of the surface of titanium nitride films deposited by reactive sputtering with a hot target have been investigated. It was founded that films synthesized at low nitrogen flow rate and at high discharge current density have the highest hardness (up to 30 GPa) and Young's modulus (up to 300 GPa). The analysis of films surface images obtained by atomic force microscopy is carried out. The typical grain size and its shape were determined. Films with the greatest hardness have the largest grains.

A review and comparison of different techniques for indenter shape characterization have been carried out. The techniques considered in this study are: a series of indentations in a reference material with known mechanical properties, a direct AFM observation of indenter apex and SPM imaging of calibration gratings supported with laser interferometer. All of the described techniques are analyzed in terms of the factors affecting the indenter shape characterization and the efficiency of obtaining the resulting indenter area function