ION PLATING DEPOSITS OF BORON-NITRIDE, A FT-IR STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION

Boron nitride thin films have been deposited by rf reactive ion plating technique from elemental boron evaporated with an electron gun while creating a rf discharge in nitrogen or nitrogen/argon mixture. The coatings analysis are performed by FT-IR transmission spectroscopy. The influence of the experimental parameters on the BN structure is clearly stated. Along with the ESCA experiments, our IR results demonstrate that a fast deposition rate and a weak nitrogen pressure are the conditions under which cubic BN is better obtained so far.