Fabrication of ohmic Au/Cr contacts on top of cubic Boron Nitride films

To fabricate electrical contacts on top of c-BN films, Au films were deposited through a mask by Pulsed Laser Ablation (PLD) and evaporation to allow a comparison of the mechanical stability as well as conductive behavior for both methods. Though in all cases a thin intermediate Cr layer was added to improve adhesion, it turned out that evaporated films had to be ion bombarded additionally at room temperature with 300 keV Ar+ ions to guarantee mechanical stability whereas the PLD films were stable without further bombardment. The resulting I-V characteristics for both types of contacts exhibit the required ohmic behavior.