Characterization of cubic boron nitride thin films grown on different substrates

Abstract

Cubic boron nitride (c-BN) thin films have been deposited on Si, Ni, Ni-coated Si and stainless steel substrates by a hot filament assistant rf plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The samples were characterized by Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. By optimizing the deposition conditions, the BN films containing a large amount of cubic phase were obtained. It was shown that substrate plays an important role in the quality of the resulting films. The stoichiometric film with a content over 85% of c-BN phase was deposited on Ni substrate. On Si substrate, c-BN film with good adhesion and quality was obtained by using a sputtered Ni thin film as a buffer layer.