Study on c BN Films Deposited by r f Plasma assisted CVD

Boron nitride (BN) films were deposited on a pre boronised AISI 5140 substrate by r f plasma assisted CVD technique, with nitrogen (N 2), hydrogen (H 2) or H 2 diluted at 10 vol% in argon (Ar) being carrier gas It was found by FTIR and SEM analyses that for the three kinds of carrier gas the c BN content was the highest if Ar+10% H 2 was used, the film thickness was the thinnest if H 2 was used, and the bonding strength of the film determined through indentation test, was the poorest if N 2 was used as the carrier gas TEM analysis indicated that most of the films were the mixtures of amorphous and cubic BN phases, with the sizes of the c BN particles being 20～40 nm