Thin textured titanium nitride (TiN) films with thicknesses under 100 nm were grown on (100) silicon wafers by employing a radio-frequency generator to sputter reactively a Ti target under poisoned modes in mixtures of fixed Ar (3.6 X 10(-1) Pa) and N-2 at various partial pressures. The texture of the TiN films can be tailored by appropriately controlling the partial pressure of the reactive nitrogen. (111) textured films can be deposited over a broad range of lower N2 Partial pressures from 2.9X 10(-2) to 1.8X 10(-1) Pa, while (100) textured films can be deposited in a narrow ranae of higher nitrogen partial pressures (2.3 X 10(-1) to 3.3 X 10(-1) Pa). The texturing effect is accounted for by a previously described thin film deposition mechanism. Scanning electron and atomic force microscopies demonstrate that the two textured TiN films both exhibit a column-rained structure; the columnar size of the (111) oriented TiN (greater than or equal to 30 nm) is coarser than that of the (100) oriented TiN (10-20 nm). Evaluations of the textured TiN barriers, based on differences in sheet resistance, surface morphology, and phase transformation induced by annealing Si/TiN(40 nm)/Cu(200 nm) samples, suggest that the (111) TiN is a superior diffusion barrier material for copper than (100) TiN. The difference in barrier effectiveness is attributed to variations in crystallographic packing and microstructure of the textured diffusion barrier.