Energy fluxes in a radio-frequency magnetron discharge for the deposition of superhard cubic boron nitride coatings

Energy flux measurements by a calorimetric probe in a rf-magnetron plasma used for the deposition of super-hard c-BN coatings are presented and discussed. Argon as working gas is used for sputtering a h-BN target. Adding a certain amount of N-2 is essential for the formation of stoichiometric BN films, since a lack of nitrogen will lead to boron rich films. Subsequently, the contributions of different plasma species, surface reactions, and film growth to the resulting variation of the substrate temperature in dependence on nitrogen admixture are estimated and discussed. In addition, SRIM simulations are performed to estimate the energy influx by sputtered neutral atoms. The influence of magnetron target power and oxygen admixture (for comparison with nitrogen) to the process gas on the total energy flux is determined and discussed qualitatively, too. The results indicate that variation of the energy influx due to additional nitrogen flow, which causes a decrease of electron and ion densities, electron temperature and plasma potential, is negligible, while the admixture of oxygen leads to a drastic increase of the energy influx. The typical hysteresis effect which can be observed during magnetron sputtering in oxygen containing gas mixtures has also been confirmed in the energy influx measurements for the investigated system. However, the underlying mechanism is not understood yet, and will be addressed in further investigations. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4769800]