Electron cyclotron resonance plasma-assisted pulsed laser deposition of boron carbon nitride films

Boron carbon nitride thin films have been prepared on Si (100) substrates by means of plasma-assisted pulsed laser deposition at low temperatures (<80 degreesC). In this method, a sintered boron carbide (B4C) target was ablated by laser pulses in the environment of a nitrogen plasma, generated from electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) microwave discharge in pure nitrogen gas, while the growing film was simultaneously being bombarded by the plasma stream. The prepared films are composed of boron, carbon and nitrogen with an average atomic B/C/N ratio of 3:1:3.8 as revealed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. XPS, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy were used for structural characterization. The results suggested that the prepared BCN films contain several chemical bonds with B-C-N atomic hybridization rather than a simple mixture of B-N, B-C and C-N phases. The BCN films were also found to show good adhesion to the substrates and have a high transparency in the near-infrared region. For comparison, we have also grown BC films in vacuum without plasma assistance. We have found that the assistance of the ECR nitrogen plasma facilitated nitrogen incorporation and film formation. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.