Study of TiN/BN bilayers produced by pulsed arc plasma

Bilayers of TiN/BN were produced by using a PAPVD (Plasma Assisted Physical Vapor Deposition) pulsed vacuum arc system. The equipment is formed by a reactor composed by a vacuum chamber with two face-to-face electrodes and an RLC circuit to produce the arc discharge. To obtain the BN coating a target of h-BN was used placed on the cathode and a substrates of silicon placed on the anode. The work gas was nitrogen at a pressure of 4.4×10−1mbar and a voltage of 240V. In order to improve the adherence of the BN film, an interlayer of TiN was grown. In this case the chamber was filled with N2 to produce the TiN coating, with a pressure of 1.7mbar and a voltage of 300V. By means of XRD (X-ray diffraction), the existence of TiN was determined finding different crystalline orientation in FCC phase. An FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) was employed to determine sp3/sp2 bonding ratio in the BN film.