Influence of oxygen on the growth of cubic boron nitride thin films by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition

Cubic boron nitride thin films were deposited on silicon substrates by low-pressure inductively coupled plasmaenhanced chemical vapour deposition. It was found that the introduction of 02 into the deposition system suppresses both nucleation and growth of cubic boron nitride. At a B2H6 concentration of 2.5% during film deposition, the critical O2 concentration allowed for the nucleation of cubic boron nitride was found to be less than 1.4%, while that for the growth of cubic boron nitride was higher than 2.1%. Moreover, the infrared absorption peak observed at around 1230- 1280 cm^-1, frequently detected for cubic boron nitride films prepared using non-ultrahigh vacuum systems, appears to be due to the absorption of boron oxide, a contaminant formed as a result of the oxygen impurity. Therefore, the existence of trace oxygen contamination in boron nitride films can be evaluated qualitatively by this infrared absorption peak.

In situ infrared spectroscopic study of cubic boron nitride thin film delamination

This paper investigates the procedure of cubic boron nitride （cBN） thin film delamination by Fourier-transform infrared （IR） spectroscopy. It finds that the apparent IR absorption peak area near 1380cm^-1 and 1073 cm^-1 attributed to the B-N stretching vibration of sp2-bonded BN and the transverse optical phonon of cBN, respectively, increased up to 195% and 175% of the original peak area after film delamination induced compressive stress relaxation. The increase of IR absorption of sp2-bonded BN is found to be non-linear and hysteretic to film delamination, which suggests that the relaxation of the turbostratic BN （tBN） layer from the compressed condition is also hysteretic to film delamination. Moreover, cross-sectional transmission electron microscopic observations revealed that cBN film delamination is possible from near the aBN（amorphous BN）/tBN interface at least for films prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition.

The Adhesion Improvement of Cubic Boron Nitride Film on High Speed Steel Substrate Implanted by Boron Element

Cubic boron nitride(c-BN) films were deposited on W6Mo5Cr4V2 high speed steel(HSS) substrate implanted with boron ion by RF-magnetron sputtering. The films were analyzed by the bending beam method, scratch test, XPS and AFM. The experimental results show that the implantation of boron atom can reduce the internal stress and improve the adhesion strength of the films. The critical load of scratch test rises to 27.45 N, compared to 1.75 N of c-BN film on the unimplanted HSS. The AFM shows that the surface of the c-BN film on the implanted HSS is low in roughness and small in grain size. Then the composition of the boron implanted layer was analyzed by the XPS. And the influence of the boron implanted layer on the internal stress and adhesion strength of c-BN films were investigated.