Nitrogen implantation effects on the chemical bondiing and hardness of boron and boron nitride coatings

摘要

Boron nitride (BN) coatings are deposited by the reactivd sputtering of fully dense, boron (B) targets utilizing an argon (Ar-N_2) reactive gas mixture. near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure analysis reveals features of chemical bonding in the B 1s photoabsorption spectrum. Harness is measured at the film surface using nanoindentiation. The BN coatings prepared at low, sputter gas pressure with substrate heating are found to have bondiing characteristic of a defected hexagoonal phase. The coatings are subjected to post-deposition nitrogen (N~+ and N_2~+) implantation at d ifferent energies and current densities. The changes in film hardness attributed to the implantation can be correolated to changes observed in the B ls NEXAFS spectra.