Cubic boron nitride film residual compressive stress relaxation by post annealing

The authors demonstrate that the residual compressive stress in cubic boron nitride films could be relaxed by 1500 K post annealing in H(2) atmosphere. According to the IR peak shifting, approximately 4.5 GPa stress was relaxed alter 4 hours annealing. Thus film adhesion was improved significantly, cubic boron nitride films with a cubic phase concentration of 90% (vol%) and a thickness of more than 200 nm showed excellent stability and no delaminations were observed even after annealing for over 30 months in the open air, while films without annealing delaminated from substrates within 1 week. Moreover, the relaxation of the compressive stress is accompanied with cubic boron nitride d (111) interplanar distance broadening and corresponding IR peak intensities increasing. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.