Crystallographic texture in cubic boron nitride thin films

We examine the crystallographic texture exhibited by cubic boron nitride (cBN) in thin films grown by ion-assisted deposition. Our analysis indicates that the cBN is preferentially oriented such that individual crystallites have at least one [111] direction lying in the plane of the film but are otherwise randomly oriented about (1) the substrate normal and (2) the in-plane cBN [111] axis. This preferential orientation is consistent with an alignment between the cBN {111} planes and the basal planes of the layer of highly oriented graphitic boron nitride that forms in the initial stages of film growth.