Deposition of high quality cubic boron nitride films on nickel substrates

Abstract

The well-crystallized cubic boron nitride (c-BN) films have been prepared on polycrystalline Ni substrates using a hot filament assisted rf plasma chemical vapor deposition method. X-ray diffraction showed that high quality c-BN films had been deposited without hexagonal BN (h-BN) or amorphous BN codeposition. Both (111) and (100) faces were observed in scanning electron microscopy images. These results suggested that Ni had catalyst effects on the nucleation and the growth of c-BN phase and inhibited the formation of h-BN.