Mechanical characterizations of nitride films deposited by ion-beam based techniques

M.A. Djouadi, D. Bouchier (1), V. Stambouli (1), S. Ilias (1)

Laboratoire Bourguignon des Matériaux et Procédés ENSAM Cluny, 71250 Cluny, France
(1) Institu d'Electronique Fondamentale, URA CNRS 22, Bat. 220, Université Paris-Sud, F-91405 Orsay, cedex, France.

ABSTRACT

Many potential applications of deposited BN and SiN, such as for wear-resistant coatings or optical layers, are limited by the intrinsic stress in thin films wich can be high enough to cause severe problems. In ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) boron nitride and reactive ion beam sputtering deposition (RIBSD) boron and silicon nitride layers, the internal stress can always be reduced below -1GPa by a post deposition annealing. When the deposition temperature is varied up to 600oC, the stress in RIBSD Si3N4 layers is not significantly reduced and, for IBAD BN films, it is enven greater than expected from the development of the thermal stress. These results suggest that at 500 eV the spatial extent of the ion peening effect may largely exceed the penetration depth of ions and of recoil atoms in the solid. The observed difference in behavior between RIBSD films and IBAD ones is probably due to the higher incident energy during IBAD deposition.


Article published in Surface & Coatings Technology 97 (1997) 39-44.