CORRELATION BETWEEN DENSITY AND STRUCTURE IN BORON-NITRIDE THIN-FILMSBY X-RAY-DIFFRACTION

We used X-ray reflectivity and X-ray glancing-angle diffraction in ord er to study the crystallisation process in ion-plated thin baron nitri de films. Both experiments show a distinct threshold plating energy of E-ion = 100 eV. Above E-ion* the average density (deduced from X-ray reflectivity) shows a strong increase, indicating the sudden appearan ce of the cubic boron nitride phase consistent with the sp(3) concentr ation deduced from IR absorption spectroscopy. The inplane X-ray diffr action shows that this cubic phase consists of small nanocrystals of 7 0 Angstrom linear size.