Fundamental Study of Boron Carbide Sputtering

Boron-rich carbides belong to a special class of solids whose main structural unit is the twelve atom icosahedra. When depositing thin films of boron carbide (nominally B$_{4}$C) by RF or pulsed DC magnetron sputtering, the individual sputtered or ablated cluster size and the temperature of the substrate to which the clusters adsorb to form the film, greatly affects the bulk film physical and electronic structure. This talk will present mass spectrometry data of the target clusters as a function of RF power, DC bias and chamber pressure toward the goal of modeling and understanding how the icosahedral based boron-rich materials sputter and the resultant control over the final film properties. Argon trapped into the film during the deposition as determined by X-Ray photoemission will also be discussed.