A compound metal comprising TiC which is a p-type metal having a workfunction of about 4.75 to about 5.3, preferably about 5, eV that is thermally stable on a gate stack comprising a high k dielectric and an interfacial layer is provided as well as a method of fabricating the TiC compound metal. Furthermore, the TiC metal compound of the present invention is a very efficient oxygen diffusion barrier at 1000.degree. C. allowing very aggressive equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) and inversion layer thickness scaling below 14 .ANG. in a p-metal oxide semiconductor (pMOS) device.