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Nucleation density enhancement for nanocrystalline diamond films

R. SHARMA1, N. WOEHRL2, P. K. BARHAI1, V. BUCK2,*

Affiliation

  1. Department of Applied Physics, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India
  2. Division of Thin Film Technology, Faculty of Physics, University of Duisburg-Essen, 47048 Duisburg and CeNIDE

Abstract

The nucleation and the growth of diamond films are two separated stages of film deposition that follow significantly different rules. The initial nucleation step in the CVD deposition of Nanocrystalline Diamond films is considerably influencing the resulting film properties of the deposited films. Thus, specifically tailoring film properties requires understanding and optimization of both, the nucleation stage and the growth stage. In this work the influence of different pretreatment methods for the substrates on the one hand and on selected plasma properties on the other hand are shown. Substrates were ultrasonically pretreated with titanium powder, with diamond powder of different crystal sizes and with combinations of both. Additionally a low pressure nucleation step is performed prior to the deposition step to enhance nucleation. The impact of the different pretreatment methods on thickness, nucleation density and surface morphology of the growing film is determined. Additionally Raman Spectroscopy is performed to investigate the quality and the structure of the deposited films. A standard pretreatment method is suggested based on the results. Furthermore the influence of the C2/Hα intensity of the plasma – as measured in situ by optical emission spectroscopy – on growth rate and nucleation density is investigated. The role of the C2 in the nucleation process is discussed on the basis of the findings..

Keywords

Diamond, Films, Nucleation density, Nanomaterial, CVD - deposition.

Submitted at: Aug. 2, 2010
Accepted at: Sept. 15, 2010

Citation

R. SHARMA, N. WOEHRL, P. K. BARHAI, V. BUCK, Nucleation density enhancement for nanocrystalline diamond films, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials Vol. 12, Iss. 9, pp. 1915-1920 (2010)