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

Cubic boron nitride thin films were deposited on (100) silicon substrates by DC jet plasma chemical vapor deposition in an Ar–N2–BF3–H2 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.