Nanoscale mutilayer TiN/BN films deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

TiN/BN multilayer coatings were deposited on a p-type (111) silicon substrate by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system, using TiCl4 and BCl3 as the TiN and BN precursors, respectively. With an automatically controlled valve system, the individual layer thickness of the TiN and BN could be controlled in the nanometer scale. The layer thickness of the BN film was varied from ∼0.5 to ∼5 nm, while the thickness of the TiN film was kept constant at 5 nm. The results from XRD and XPS analyses revealed that cubic-BN had formed on the template TiN layer when the layer thickness of the BN was sufficiently thin (<0.5∼1 nm). Low angle X-ray diffraction and electron diffraction patterns of the TiN/BN multilayer showed a well-defined composition modulation.