Boron carbonitride films deposited by pulsed laser ablation

Boron carbonitride (BCN) thin films were deposited on Si (100) substrates at room temperature by sequential pulsed laser ablation (PLA) of graphite and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) targets in vacuum and in nitrogen atmosphere in the pressure range 1–100 Pa. Different analysis techniques as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) pointed out the synthesis of h-BCN and c-BCN. The grain size of the crystalline c-BCN phase was estimated to be in the range 30–80 nm. The size of the crystallites in h-BCN phase was 4.6 μm, with a transversal dimension of about 30 nm. Complementary microhardness measurements evidenced the high microhardness (values up to 2.9 GPa) of the deposited films.