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Boron Nitride Materials for Tribological and High Temperature High Power Devices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

N. Badi
Affiliation:
Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204–5507
A. Tempez
Affiliation:
Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204–5507
D. Starkov
Affiliation:
Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204–5507
N. Medelcr
Affiliation:
Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204–5507
A. Bensaoula
Affiliation:
Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204–5507
J. Kulik
Affiliation:
Texas Center for Superconductivity, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204–5932
S. M. Klimentov
Affiliation:
General Physics Institute, Moscow -, Russia
S. V. Garnov
Affiliation:
General Physics Institute, Moscow -, Russia
V. P. Ageev
Affiliation:
General Physics Institute, Moscow -, Russia
M. V. Ugarov
Affiliation:
Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204–5507
S. Lee
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204–5641
S. S. Perry
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204–5641
K. Waters
Affiliation:
Ionwerks, 2472 Bolsover suite 255, Houston, Texas 77005
A. Shultz
Affiliation:
Ionwerks, 2472 Bolsover suite 255, Houston, Texas 77005
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Abstract

Boron nitride thin films on sapphire substrates were investigated for their tribological and optoelectronic applications. A gridless end Hall gun source and an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) source were used for nitrogen species delivery while pure boron was evaporated at a rate of 0.2 Å/s. The surface stability of these thin films was investigated by high temperature annealing. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), friction force microscopy (FFM), and Knoop microhardness measurements were performed on the materials in order to assess their merits as tribological coatings. Finally, BN thin films were subjected to laser transient photoconductivity (TPC) experiments to determine both their optical laser damage threshold as well as their photoconductivity characteristics. For both single-pulse shot and multiple-pulse irradiation regimes, preliminary tests showed the higher the ion beam current used during growth (70–150 mA), the higher the optical damage threshold. The lower damage threshold was typical of BN films grown using an ECR plasma source and was measured to be in the range of ∼50 MW/cm2. Optical damage of films grown at ion beam currents above 100 mA was not observed at laser intensities up to few hundreds MW/cm2. A multiphoton excitation technique was utilized to obtain PC signals from this wide band gap material and preliminary results show that unusual PC voltage amplitudes as high as 0.5 V were observed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1998

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References

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