Synthesis of cBN films by ion mixing and vapor deposition technique

Synthesis of boron nitride (BN) films was studied by the simultaneous use of ion mixing and vapor deposition, i.e., IVD technique. The critical acceleration energy of N ion was observed for the formation of cubic BN phase, revealing at about 1 keV. The transport ratio B/N was also found to strongly affect the hardness and volume resistivity of BN films. By combining the results of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, it was found that most of the nitrogen atoms in the BN films bind with boron ones while the excess content of boron exists as metallic boron. In B-rich BN films, therefore, use of low energy N ions is effective for the synthesis of cBN films using the IVD technique.