FABRICATION OF DIAMOND FILMS BY A MAGNETO-ACTIVE PLASMA CVD USING ALCOHOL HYDROGEN SYSTEM

Good-quality diamond films have been synthesized by a magneto-active plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system using the alcohol hydrogen system, CnH2n+1OH/H2, (n = 1 to 3). The regions to fabricate polycrystalline diamond films are similar for all alcohols for the C/H ratios of the original gas mixtures and are independent of the reaction gases. The films have been studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron microscopy (XPS). A quantitative relationship between morphologies of SEM images of diamond films and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of diamond carbon Is (C 1s) core photoemission spectra has been set up for the first time. The FWHM of the C Is XPS peak of the best diamond film is 0.951 eV and is of good value. The FWHM of diamond C 1s peak is very sensitive to the morphology of diamond film. Optical emission spectroscopy (OES) of the plasma shows that the growth rate and the FWHM of diamond C Is peak depend on the ratio of carbon and hydrogen in the plasma. OH radicals are shown to play a role on etching of non-diamond phases.