Single-crystal cubic boron nitride thin films grown by ion-beam-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

We investigated the formation of cubic boron nitride (c-BN) thin films on diamond (001) and (111) substrates by ion-beam-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The metastable c-BN (sp3-bonded BN) phase can be epitaxially grown as a result of the interplay between competitive phase formation and selective etching. We show that a proper adjustment of acceleration voltage for N2+ and Ar+ ions is a key to selectively discriminate non-sp3 BN phases. At low acceleration voltage values, the sp2-bonded BN is dominantly formed, while at high acceleration voltages, etching dominates irrespective of the bonding characteristics of BN.