Preparation of B4C thin film by pulsed ion-beam evaporation

Boron carbide (B4C) is known as the material by its hardness, wear resistance and stability at high temperature. The preparation of thin film of B4C, therefore, is very important from the viewpoint of the industrial applications. We have experimentally tried to prepare thin film of B4C by using pulsed ion-beam evaporation (IBE), where high density ablation plasma is produced by the intense pulsed ion beam interaction with target. The crystallized B4C thin films could be successfully deposited on Si (100) substrate by the front side deposition. Absorptions associated with the B-C combination and the vibration of B12 - B12 clusters could be observed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Vickers hardness of the film deposited by front side deposition was observed to be HV∼1800.