We report the growth of thin carbon nitride films on Si(100) substrates at temperatures in the range of 100–700 °C using electron-beam evaporation of graphite assisted with electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma generated nitrogen species. The effect of the substrate temperature, and the nitrogen flow on the composition ratio C/N, and the C—N bonding were investigated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS), and Raman spectroscopy. The FTIR spectra show that the films produced exhibit a very high visible to infrared transmittance (0.85–0.95). These spectra were dominated by amine group (NH2) with the presence of C-N stretching modes. From both RBS and XPS, the nitrogen concentration in the film was calculated and was found in the range of 24%–48%, depending on the nitrogen partial pressure in the ECR source. Raman spectrum of the high nitrogen content thin film shows a well resolved peak at 1275 cm−1 suggesting the formation of a fourfold coordinated (sp3) CN film.

Transition from amorphous boron carbide to hexagonal boron carbon nitride thin films induced by nitrogen ion assistance Nitrogen ion beam-assisted pulsed laser deposition of boron nitride films J. Appl. Phys. 83, 3398 (1998); 10.1063/1.367107Microstructure of highly oriented, hexagonal, boron nitride thin films grown on crystalline silicon by radio frequency plasmaassisted chemical vapor deposition Microstructure of cubic boron nitride thin films grown by ionassisted pulsed laser deposition

Electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma-assisted vapor deposition has been used to grow thin carbon nitride films on Si(100) and sapphire substrates. The composition, structure, and optical properties of the films were investigated by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Rutherford backscattering (RBS), Raman, and optical absorption spectroscopies. The effect of varying the nitrogen gas flow, at constant substrate temperature and carbon deposition rate, on the C/N composition ratio and the CxNy crystal structure was investigated. From both RBS and XPS, the nitrogen concentration in the film was found to be in the range of 20%–48% and varied directly with the nitrogen partial pressure in the ECR source. In CN films with low nitrogen content, the Raman spectra showed no evidence of CN bonding and were characteristic of graphitic carbon. In contrast, the Raman spectra of high nitrogen content thin films show a wide peak at 1291 cm−1, suggesting the formation of a CxNy phase with predominately sp3 bonding. The optical band gap of CN films deposited on sapphire was found to be about 1.95 eV, which is below that reported for amorphous CN films, suggesting a higher structural order.

Highly cubic phase and stoichiometric boron nitride films were deposited on Si(100) substrates using a neutralized nitrogen beam and electron beam evaporation of boron. High intensity, focused, and low-energy neutralized nitrogen beam was supplied using a newly developed neutralizer atomic beam ion source (NABS) adapted to a Kaufman-type ion source. The films were grown at substrate temperatures in the range 400-500 "C and a boron evaporation rate of 0.2 A/s. Infrared transmittance spectra of the films showed that a highly cubic phase (80%) was obtained in the area of the focused beam. These films were compared to those obtained using similar conditions but with the NABS disconnected from the ion source, and it was found that the cubic phase content decreases drastically (10%). The results show that the NABS was the determining factor in enhancing the formation of the cubic boron nitride films. Furthermore, the addition of Ar to N, which is reported to increase the momentum transfer and promote the formation of the cubic phase, did not play a significant role when the NABS was used.

Comparison study of nucleation and growth characteristics of chemical-vapor-deposited diamond films on CoSi 2 (001) and Si(001) P-Si(100) and n-Si(100) substrates had quite different responses to the same process parameters used in the modified four-step diamond growth method, i.e., pretreatment, heating, bias enhanced nucleation ͑BEN͒ and bias texture growth ͑BTG͒, which has been developed to grow textured diamond films by hot filament chemical vapor deposition. At the pretreatment step, a bright blue plasma discharge induced the formation of damaged voids randomly distributed on the surfaces of p-Si(100) and n-Si(100). The damaged voids on p-Si(100) are several microns in size and 3 m in depth. In contrast, the size and depth of the damaged voids on n-Si(100) are in nanometer scale, approximately two orders of magnitude lower than those on p-Si(100). At the BEN step, carburization occurred along with the possibility of diamond nucleation. Unfacet nuclei of micron scale distributed around the edge of damaged voids all over the p-Si(100) substrate. In contrast, a great number of small nuclei of nanometer scale spread and covered all the damaged voids around the outer edge of the n-Si(100) substrate. The continuous textured diamond film grown on p-Si(100) had better diamond quality than that on n-Si(100) at the BTG step. The textured diamond film on p-Si(100) was flat, however, that on n-Si(100) was under stress in convex shape. Ion bombardment at the BTG step resulted in the enhancement of the growth of textured diamond and in the degradation of diamond quality through the formation of amorphous carbon. P-Si(100) is considered better than n-Si(100) to be the substrate for textured diamond deposition.