Effects of surface pretreatments on nucleation and growth of diamond films on a variety of substrates

Abstract

The effects of surface pretreatments on nucleation and growth of chemical vapor deposited diamond films were studied. The pretreatments included scratching with diamond grit, coating with a low vapor pressure, high thermal stability hydrocarbon oil, and coating with a 100–200-Å-thick layer of evaporated carbon. The effects of the treatments on carbide and noncarbide forming materials are described.

Theoretical analysis of the diffusive ion in biased plasma enhanced diamond chemical vapor deposition

“…[1][2][3] The bias voltage of around Ϫ100 V applied to the substrate relative to a countermetal electrode in the plasma is known to form diamond nuclei on the substrate at a density of 10 10 /cm 2 , which is six orders larger than that obtained without bias pretreatment. In addition, the bias pretreatment is effective for the aligned nucleation of nuclei on the substrate.…”

Studies on nucleation process in diamond CVD: an overview of recent developments

“…Nucleation enhancement has also been achieved by covering substrate surfaces with graphite fibers/clusters [33,60,102], or films [70,101], and coating substrate surfaces with thin films of metals (Fe, Cu, Ti, Nb, Mo, Ni) [31,104], C 60 , C 70 [26,125], a-C [30], DLC [126], Y-ZrO 2 [103], a-BN and SiC [14,18,104], or hydrocarbon oil [127], etc. The efficacy of the overlaid materials on nucleation enhancement decreases in the order from C 70 , a-C, DLC, graphite fiber, graphite film, Fe, Cu, Ti, Ni, Mo, to Nb [26,30,[100][101][102]104].…”

“…The efficacy of the overlaid materials on nucleation enhancement decreases in the order from C 70 , a-C, DLC, graphite fiber, graphite film, Fe, Cu, Ti, Ni, Mo, to Nb [26,30,[100][101][102]104]. The thickness of the overlayers ranges typically from a few nanometers (2-8 nm for metal films [104], 10-20 nm for hydrocarbon oil [127], 100 nm for a C 70 layer [26], 150 nm for a Y-ZrO 2 layer [103]) to a few micrometers (~1 µm for carbon film [101]). The nucleation enhancement is attributed to the physical and chemical effects associated with changes to the surface (the overlayers promote carbon saturation at the substrate surface, and provide high-energy sites or nucleation centers [26,30,70,101,126]), and changes to the gas chemistry in the immediate vicinity of the substrate surface [101].…”

Growth, microstructure, and field-emission properties of synthesized diamond film on adamantane-coated silicon substrate by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition

“…Currently several groups have used different seeding materials ͑without scratching͒ such as graphite fibers, fullerenes clusters, hydrocarbon oil, and thin films of different types of carbon for the diamond deposition. [10][11][12] However, despite rapid progress, the growth of diamond film on the silicon substrate by microwave plasma CVD ͑MPCVD͒ still require nucleation step for improvement in terms of yield, quality, purity, and uniformity to synthesis of diamond at relatively low temperature and pressure.…”