Effect of implanted argon on hardness of novel magnetron sputtered Si–B–C–N materials:experiments and ab initio simulations

Abstract

Amorphous silicon–boron–carbon–nitrogen alloys were deposited by reactivemagnetron sputtering in nitrogen–argon gas mixtures, and their structure andresulting mechanical properties were investigated using a combined approach ofexperiment and molecular-dynamics simulations. We show a difference betweenstructures of the materials deposited with a low substrate bias voltage of−100 V leading to a 2% content of implanted Ar atoms, and a high substrate bias voltage of−500 V, resulting in a 6% content of implanted Ar atoms. We find that, while at the higher Arcontent the material is practically homogeneous, at the low Ar content there are similarvolumes of Si-rich (around the implanted Ar atoms) and Si-poor zones. This can increasematerial hardness. We examine a temperature dependence of this phenomenon in the lightof experimental results.