Amorphous and hexagonal boron nitride growth using bromide chemistry.

A plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition process based on a micro-plasma working in argon/nitrogen mixture and using a bromide precursor is used to grow boron nitride. Without hydrogen (H₂) in the reactive media, growth of amorphous boron nitride (a-BN) is observed, while the injection of H₂ in the deposition chamber leads to the growth of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), H₂ limiting the negative effect of bromide. The distance between the plasma source and the substrate has a strong influence on the films stoichiometry which partly explains why the h-BN layers are not stable with a fast deterioration into boric acid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]