Thermal stability of cubic boron nitride films deposited by chemical vapor deposition

Thermal stability of well-crystallized cubic boron nitride (cBN) films grown by chemical vapor deposition has been investigated by cathodoluminescence (CL), Raman spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with the cBN films annealed at various temperatures up to 1300 °C. The crystallinity of the cBN films further improves, as indicated by a reduction of the relevant Raman line width, when the annealing temperature exceeds 1100 °C. Structural damage or amorphization was observed on the grain boundaries of the cBN crystals when annealing temperature reaches 1300 °C. The CL spectra are found to be unchanged up to 1100 °C after annealing at 500 °C, showing the stability of the cBN films in electronic properties up to this temperature. New features were observed in the CL spectra when annealing temperature reaches 1200-1300 °C.