MORPHOLOGY AND BONDING MEASURED FROM BORON-NITRIDE POWDERS AND FILMS USING NEAR-EDGE X-RAY-ABSORPTION FINE-STRUCTURE

Bonding in the hexagonal, cubic (zincblende), rhombohedral, and wurtzi te phases of boron nitride was characterized using core-level photoabs orption. In the boron and nitrogen 1s photoabsorption cross section we observed resonances that were unique to each of the phases and that w ere associated with the sp2 or sp3 bonding present. These spectroscopi c standards were then used to characterize the bonding and morphology in an incoherent thin film of BN based on its core-level photoabsorpti on. The film studied had predominantly sp2 (hexagonal-like) bonding wi th some evidence of sp3 (cubic-phase) bonds.