Gallium arsenide wafers were encapsulated with multilayer films consisting of TiN and Ti layers using an ion beam-assisted deposition technique employing an electron beam evaporator for Ti evaporation and a microwave ion source for ionizing nitrogen gas. The encapsulated GaAs surfaces were heated to 1000 degreesC and held at that temperature for 15 min. The GaAs surfaces had a desirable surface morphology when covered with a TiN/Ti-rich TiN/TiN multilayer film. A small fraction of the S atom population implanted in the GaAs diffused into the encapsulant during annealing at 1000 degreesC, while S atoms remained in the GaAs was electrically active. The redistribution profile of S atoms for S-doped GaAs annealed with the desirable composite film of TiN/Ti-rich TiN/TiN is well approximated by a Gaussian distribution function with a concentration-independent diffusion constant.