High-Rate Deposition of High-Quality, Thick Cubic Boron Nitride Films by Bias-Assisted DC Jet Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition

Abstract

Cubic boron nitride thin films were deposited on (100) silicon substrates by DC jet plasma chemical vapor deposition in an Ar–N 2 –BF 3 –H 2 gas system. Negative DC bias was applied on the substrate during deposition. Scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, infrared and Raman spectroscopy were carried out to characterize the samples. It was found that boron nitride films with cubic phase over 90% were synthesized under optimized conditions. A high deposition rate of about 0.3 µm/min and a film thickness over 3 µm were firstly achieved. Furthermore, the Raman measurements show clear TO and LO characteristic peaks of c-BN with a full width at half maximum of 28.8 and 19.7 cm -1 , revealing a high quality of the deposited films.