On the role of ions in the formation of cubic boron nitride films by ion-assisted deposition

Journal Article · Tue Nov 01 00:00:00 EST 1994 · Journal of Materials Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.1994.2925· OSTI ID:6837038

Mirkarimi, P B; McCarty, K F; Medlin, D L; Wolfer, W G; Friedmann, T A; Klaus, E J ^[1]; Cardinale, G F; Howitt, D G ^[2]

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1. Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California 94550 (United States)
2. Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of California at Davis, Davis, California 95616 (United States)

We have investigated how ion irradiation can selectively promote formation of dense [ital sp][sup 3]-bonded cubic [ital c]BN over the graphite-like [ital sp][sup 2]-bonded phases. Experiments used ion-assisted pulsed laser deposition in which either the ion mass (m[sub ion]) or ion energy (E) was varied in conjunction with ratio of ion flux to depositing atom flux (J/a). For a fixed ion energy and mass, there is a critical J/a above which [ital c]BN formation is initiated, a window of J/a values in which large [ital c]BN percentages are obtained, and a point at which J/a is so large that the resputter and deposition rates balance and there is no net film deposition, in agreement with Kester and Messier. As do Kester and Messier, we find that [ital c]BN formation is controlled by a combination of experimental parameters that scale with the momentum of the ions. However, unlike Kester and Messier, we do not find that [ital c]BN formation scales with the maximum momentum that can be transferred in a single binary collision, as either incorrectly formulated by Targove and Macleod and used by Kester and Messier, or as correctly formulated. Instead we observe that [ital c]BN formation best scales with the total momentum of the incident ions, (m[sub ion]E)[sup 1/2]. We also consider the mechanistic origins of this (m[sub ion]E)[sup 1/2] dependence. Computer simulations of the interaction of ions with BN show that [ital c]BN formation cannot be simply scaled to parameters such as the number of atomic displacements or the number of vacancies produced by the ion irradiation. A critical examination of the literature shows that none of the proposed models satisfactorily accounts for the observed (m[sub ion]E)[sup 1/2] dependence. We present a quantitative model that describes the generation of stress during ion-assisted film growth.

• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 6837038
• Journal Information: Journal of Materials Research; (United States), Vol. 9:11; ISSN 0884-2914
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
BORON NITRIDES
DEPOSITION
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CUBIC LATTICES
FILMS
ION BEAMS
LASER RADIATION
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PULSED IRRADIATION
SCALING LAWS
STRESSES
ULTRAHIGH VACUUM
BEAMS
BORON COMPOUNDS
CRYSTAL LATTICES
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
IRRADIATION
NITRIDES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
PNICTIDES
RADIATIONS
SIMULATION
360201* - Ceramics
Cermets
& Refractories- Preparation & Fabrication