The demand for extrahigh vacuum vessels is increasing, especially in the field of surface analysis and thin-film preparation. Therefore, the development of materials that are inert to gas adsorption is important. We have developed boron nitride-coated stainless steels using the boron nitride surface precipitation of steels doped with boron and nitrogen and found that the surface where boron nitride precipitated was inert to the adsorption of gases.
However. boron nitride precipitated at more than 900 K. Therefore, we tried to lower the surface precipitation temperature of boron nitride.
A mixture of type 304 stainless steel and boron nitride was deposited on the surface of a type 304 substrate with a r. f. magnetron sputtering method. Scanning Auger electron microscope observation and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed that boron nitride precipitated on the surface of the deposited film and the precipitated boron nitride uniformly covered the surface after annealing at more than 600 K in high vacuum. Only small carbon and oxygen Auger peaks were observed on the surface of the precipitated boron nitride after the 3.6 ks exposure in air, indicating that the surface of this film covered with boron nitride was inert to gas adsorption.
Therefore, film consisting of a mixture of stainless steel and boron nitride is a candidate material for low-temperature surface modification of vacuum vessels.
抄録全体を表示