Boron carbide films grown from microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition

摘要

Boron carbide films were grown using microwave plasma CVD technology, which has been well developed for growing diamond films. The films were grown on silicon wafers from the gases H{sub}2, CH{sub}4 and BC{sub}l3. Films were amorphous and had acomposition near B{sub}3C, almost independent of the boron: carbon ratio in the input gases. Growth rates of up to 0.25μm h{sup}-1 were observed. The growth rate of the films was proportional to the intensity of emission from B and BCl species observedin the gas phase. Our results indicate that growth is first order in a boron-containing species, and our analysis suggests that BCl is the primary growth species.