A COMPARISON OF THE EFFECTS OF RF PLASMA DISCHARGE AND ION-BEAM SUPPLY ON THE GROWTH OF CUBIC BORON-NITRIDE FILMS FORMED BY LASER PHYSICAL VAPOR-DEPOSITION

This paper presents a comparison of the effects of RF plasma discharge and ion beam supply on the growth of cubic boron nitride films formed by excimer laser physical vapor deposition (laser PVD). The film structure was analyzed by fourier transformation infrared region (FT-IR) spectroscopy and thin-film X-ray diffraction analysis. The structure of the film deposited with an RF plasma discharge provided between the substrate and target was hexagonal BN. On the other hand, that of the film deposited by irradiating the substrate directly with an ion beam was hexagonal BN (hBN) and cubic BN (cBN). It is thought that direct irradiation of the vapor generated from the target by accelerated ions increased the activation energy of the vapor, with the result that the film structure was changed. Besides irradiating the substrate directly with the ion beam resulted primarily in the etching of hBN while cBN remained.