Effect of Annealing Temperature on Structure and Mechanical Property of Magnetron Sputtered c-BN Films

Abstract

c-BN films were deposited on Si (100) substrates by magnetron sputtering followed by annealing at high temperatures. The effect of annealing temperature on the structure, surface morphology and mechanical property of the films were investigated. The structural characterization by FTIR showed an increasing in c-BN content with annealing temperature, and the surface morphology of the c-BN films became more homogeneous. The stress produced in the films was relaxed after annealing, and the hardness was increased with the increasing of c-BN content. At the optimum annealing temperature of 900°C, the hardness reached the maximum value of 13.32 GPa, where the films had the highest c-BN content of 64.3%.