Thick c-BN films deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering in argon/nitrogen gas mixture with additional hydrogen gas

Abstract

The excellent physical and chemical properties of cubic boron nitride (c-BN) film make it a promising candidate for various industry applications. However, the c-BN film thickness restricts its practical applications in many cases. Thus, it is indispensable to develop an economic, simple and environment-friend way to synthesize high-quality thick, stable c-BN films. High-cubic-content BN films are prepared on silicon (100) substrates by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering from an h-BN target at low substrate temperature. Adhesions of the c-BN films are greatly improved by adding hydrogen to the argon/nitrogen gas mixture, allowing the deposition of a film up to 5-µm thick. The compositions and the microstructure morphologies of the c-BN films grown at different substrate temperatures are systematically investigated with respect to the ratio of H 2 gas content to total working gas. In addition, a primary mechanism for the deposition of thick c-BN film is proposed.

RETRACTED: Exploration of Growth Window for Phase-Pure Cubic Boron Nitride Films Prepared in a Pure N2 Plasma

“…Figure 1a shows the FTIR spectra obtained from BN films using pure N 2 plasma at 470 • C with different deposition times. The absorption band at 1091 cm −1 is due to the transverse optical (TO) mode of c-BN, while two absorption bands at 1400 and 770 cm −1 correspond to the h-BN phase and result from the in-plane B-N stretching mode and the out-of-plane B-N-B bending vibration, respectively [17]. It can be clearly observed that there is a continuous increase of the intensity of c-BN peak, while the positions of the c-BN peaks have no obvious shift with increased deposition time.…”

“…Such involvement of Ar ions may cause resputter of the deposited film, structural damage, and stress accumulation, especially under high ion energy conditions [15,16]. Although introducing H 2 into the working gases can effectively etch the sp 2 phase, leaving an sp 3 phase [17], the assistance of Ar for energetic ion bombardment is the major reason for the poor adhesion that is usually found, which severely hinders the application of c-BN films.…”

Bias-Enhanced Formation of Metastable and Multiphase Boron Nitride Coating in Microwave Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition

“…The complete peak assignment is also given in Table 1 . The volume fraction of the different BN phases of the bias-enhanced coating can be estimated by the relative intensities of the w -BN, c -BN and h -BN peaks using the following equation [ 39 , 40 ]. …”

Initial growth and microstructure feature of Ag films prepared by very-high-frequency magnetron sputtering

“…[9] In order to carry out a good investigation on the initial growth of Ag films formation, the controllable preparation of samples is very important. The magnetron sputtering is an important technology for the films deposition [15][16][17][18][19][20] and an attractive alternative to prepare Ag films. [21][22][23][24][25] However, the common magnetron sputtering for the Ag films preparation is driven by the 13.56 MHz radio-frequency (RF) source.…”