Optical Studies of Reactively Co-Sputtered BCN Thin Films

Abstract

Boron carbon nitride (BCN) ternary compounds have similarities in the structure and difference in properties between graphite and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). Both theoretical calculations and experimental studies show that BCN compounds exhibit excellent mechanical, optical and electrical properties. The possibility to control the band gap (EG) by atomic composition and structure makes them good candidates for the application in electronic and photonic devices . In this work we deposited BCN thin films on quartz substrates by B4C and BN targets using RF and DC powers respectively at different N2/Ar gas flow ratios. Input power for B4C and BN are varied to achieve different composition of the BCN thin films to control the optical properties. The optical properties like transmission and reflectance are studied using the UV-visible spectrophotometer. The optical absorption is studied by Tauc plot which is instrumental in finding the optical band gap of the material and the refractive index.