Investigation of bias enhanced nucleation of diamond on silicon

The process of bias enhanced nucleation of microwave chemical vapor deposited diamond on silicon has been extensively characterized using plasma diagnostics, scanning and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Raman spectroscopy, and x-ray diffraction. The nucleation kinetics were measured as a function of bias voltage, methane partial pressure, and substrate temperature. The nucleation is found to be transient in character with a delay time followed by an exponential increase in nucleation density with time, and finally a saturation. The ion flux and ion energy distribution was measured by a retarding field probe, The nucleation density was found to reach a maximum at a bias at which the ion energy distribution has a maximum of 80 eV, independent of the substrate temperature. This is taken as strong evidence that nucleation enhancement involves ion subplantation. The Raman spectra and x-ray diffraction suggests that the films during nucleation consist primarily of sp(2) bonded noncrystalline carbon. The presence of the (0002) interlayer graphitic peak suggests that the carbon is primarily graphitic. The diamond nuclei form in this matrix. TEM shows mainly amorphous hillocks being formed on the substrates by bias enhanced nucleation. Diffraction patterns and high resolution TEM reveal the presence of beta-SiC and also a small number of diamond particles. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.