Mechanical properties of thin films in the ternary triangle B-C-N

We report on thin films in the ternary system B–C–N deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering of targets with different B/C ratio in an Ar/N2 gas mixture. First, the proportion of nitrogen in the gas was varied from 0 to 100% with the substrate being at floating potential in order to change the incorporated amount of nitrogen in the films. Secondly, at 50% nitrogen in the gas a negative substrate potential was applied for ion bombardment of the growing film. The film composition was measured by elastic recoil detection analysis. The mechanical properties, Young's modulus and hardness, were determined from nanoindentation measurements. All films were also investigated by Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The mechanical properties show a great variation range in dependence on the film composition (up to a factor of three) and ion bombardment (up to a factor of two), which can be related to the bonding characteristics derived from the FTIR spectra.