The effects of Methane Concentration on diamond nucleation and growth during bias enhanced nucleation on 3C-SiC(100) surfaces

Abstract

The effects of methane concentration on the nucleation and growth of diamond during bias enhanced nucleation treatment was studied on 3C-SiC (100) surfaces. At low methane concentration of 1%, no diamond nucleation was observed, whereas at 3 %, nucleation density values as high as 4x10 10 / cm 2 were reached. Increasing further the methane concentration to 5% induced a slight but significant enhancement of the diamond nucleation density, which in this case was measured to be 7 x10 10 / cm 2 . Moreover, Field Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscopy (FEG-SEM) pictures emphasized clearly that the methane content also affects the growth mechanisms.Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 956