Preparation of B4C thin film by pulsed ion-beam evaporation

Boron carbide (B
4
C) is known as the material by its hardness, wear resistance and stability at high temperature. The preparation of thin film of B
4
C, therefore, is very important from the viewpoint of the industrial applications. We have experimentally tried to prepare thin film of B
4
C by using pulsed ion-beam evaporation (IBE), where high density ablation plasma is produced by the intense pulsed ion beam interaction with target. The crystallized B
4
C thin films could be successfully deposited on Si (100) substrate by the front side deposition. Absorptions associated with the B-C combination and the vibration of B
12
- B
12
clusters could be observed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Vickers hardness of the film deposited by front side deposition was observed to be HV∼1800.