Boron carbide (B
4C) is known as a material having hardness, wear resistance and stability at high temperature. It can be applied, for example, as a coating material for cutting tools. The preparation of thin film of B
4C, therefore, is very important from the viewpoint of the industrial applications. We have experimentally attempted to prepare thin film of B
4C using the pulsed ion-beam evaporation (IBE) technique, where high-density ablation plasma is produced by an intense pulsed ion beam interaction with the target. Various configurations of IBE have been studied by front-side, back-side and mask-side depositions. The crystallized B
4C thin films have been successfully deposited on Si(100) substrate by front-side and mask-side depositions. Absorptions associated with the B-C combination and the vibration of B
12-B
12 clusters have been observed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The Vickers hardness of the film deposited by front-side deposition is observed to be HV-2300.
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