Since titanium nitride appears golden and has a high conductivity, the possibility that it can be used in surface plasma wave applications in a manner similar to gold but with very strong scratch-resistance, is of interest. This work considers this possibility using the Kretschmann configuration, measuring the angle-dependent reflectivity as well as the wavelength-dependent reflectivity. Both sets of results demonstrate the excitation of a surface plasma wave at the TiN/air interface by an incident p-wave. The thickness of TiN that most efficiently couples the incident p-wave to the surface plasma wave is around 35 nm. All of the experiments are accompanied by corresponding numerical simulations. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3549732]
