Preparation of B4C Thin Film by Intense Pulsed Ion-Beam Evaporation

Abstract

Boron carbide (B4C) is known as a material having hardness, wear resistance and stability at high temperature. It can be applied, for example, as a coating material for cutting tools. The preparation of thin film of B4C, therefore, is very important from the viewpoint of the industrial applications. We have experimentally attempted to prepare thin film of B4C using the pulsed ion-beam evaporation (IBE) technique, where high-density ablation plasma is produced by an intense pulsed ion beam interaction with the target. Various configurations of IBE have been studied by front-side, back-side and mask-side depositions. The crystallized B4C thin films have been successfully deposited on Si(100) substrate by front-side and mask-side depositions. Absorptions associated with the B-C combination and the vibration of B12-B12 clusters have been observed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The Vickers hardness of the film deposited by front-side deposition is observed to be HV-2300.

Synthesis of Nanocrystalline Boron Carbide via a Solvothermal Reduction of CCl4 in the Presence of Amorphous Boron Powder

“…B 4 C was conventionally synthesized by various high‐temperature reactions (up to 2400°C), such as carbothermal reduction of boric acid or boron oxide 1–3 . B 4 C films were also synthesized by a variety of deposition methods, e.g., plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition of B 4 C nanowires and nanocrystal arrays from the single precursor closo‐1,2‐dicarbadodecaborane (C 2 B 10 H 12 ), 4 formation of B 4 C filament by chemical vapor deposition method using a nickel catalyst, 5 deposition of B 13 C 2 films 6 or B 4 C films 7 from BCl 3 –CH 4 –H 2 –argon mixtures, and synthesis of B 4 C thin films by intense‐pulsed ion‐beam evaporation 8 …”

Deposition of boron carbide powder by a pulsed high‐current arc plasma

“…The Vickers hardness of the deposit measured in the cross-sectional sample averaged 2600 kgf/mm 2 for the deposit from the coarse powder and 2000 kgf/mm 2 for that from the fine powder. Those values of hardness, which were in the highest level among the boron-carbon composite coatings made by other methods [10], were apparently lower than the hardness of 3450 kgf/mm 2 of sintered B 4 C.…”