In an attempt to decrease the intrinsic stress of IBAD BN films and improve their adhesion, collisional effects on the intrinsic stress of the deposited layers were investigated by using on the one hand, a pur nitrogen ion beam, on the other hand, a mixed beam of argon and nitrogen. Bilayers were deposited under pur nitrogen assistance be varying the elaboration conditions (E, FN/FB) during growth. Surprisely the average stress remains constant whatever the experimental conditions. In fact the second deposition step always induces in the buried layer a peak of stress in the interfacial region. Boron nitride films were also deposited by usinf a mixture of nitrogen and argon ions for assistance during growth. On condition that nitrogen-to-boron flux ratio should be high enough to synthesize stoichiometric material, tetrahedral bonds in BN films are formed when argon-to-boron flux ratio and accelerating voltage exceed interdependent threshold values. The investigations of the structure of deposited films followed by stress measurements have shown that the high levels of obtained stress (up to -10 GPa) are due to a change of mechanical properties of synthesized material when it goes from hexagonal structure to cubic one.
