B-C-N hybrid synthesis by high-temperature ion implantation

Uddin, M. N.; Shimoyama, Iwao   ; Baba, Yuji  ; Sekiguchi, Tetsuhiro  ; Nath, K. G.; Nagano, Masamitsu*

Recently, much attention has been given on the synthesis and characterization of graphite-like B-C-N hybrid. Since graphite-like B-C-N hybrid may have semiconducting property, this material is interesting for applications to electronic and luminescent devices. In order to synthesize this material, borazine ion plasma was implanted in graphite at room temperature (RT) and 600 C. An ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) chamber with base pressure 10 Pa was used for the experiment. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) study suggested that B atoms in the deposited films are in a wide variety of atomic environment such as BC3, BN3 and B-C-N hybrid. The ratios of these coordinations strongly depend on the temperature during the ion implantation. It was found that the B-C-N hybrid is predominantly synthesized by the implantation at 600 C where the surface [B]/([B]+[C]+[N]) ratio ranges from 0.1 to 0.35. The results imply that it is possible to control the composition of B-C-N hybrid by changing the fluence of the ion plasma and the temperature of graphite during ion implantation.