Effect of increasing the microwave density in both continuous and pulsed wave mode on the growth of monocrystalline diamond films
✍ Scribed by Tallaire, A. ;Achard, J. ;Silva, F. ;Gicquel, A.
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2005
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 199 KB
- Volume
- 202
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0031-8965
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
Diamond synthetic single crystals exhibiting a high and reliable quality would find many applications in different areas such as optics, mechanics, or electronic devices. In this study, thick high quality homoepitaxial diamond films were grown on synthetic substrates using Micro‐Wave Plasma Assisted Chemical Vapour Deposition. The effect of increasing the density of the hydrogen methane discharge was investigated since it is believed to allow higher deposition rates by enhancing the production of precursor species. In continuous wave mode, it was actually observed that increasing the microwave density in the plasma from 65 to 125 W/cm^3^ leaded to an increase of diamond growth rates from 3 to 8.5 µm/h and from 11 to 19 µm/h when 4% and 7% of CH~4~ was added to the gas phase respectively. However, when such a high microwave power density is injected, overheating of the reactor walls, windows and wave‐guides occurs leading to problematic cooling‐down and higher contamination of the diamond film. In particular higher silicon incorporation was found by photoluminescence spectroscopy that probably originates from an enhanced etching of the quartz windows. Thanks to the use of a pulsed discharge with a peak power of 190 W/cm^3^ the deposition of diamond at rates close to 22 µm/h became possible while limiting this problem of overheating. The use of such pulsed discharges is thus considered to be a very promising method for the growth of high quality diamond single‐crystals at high deposition rates. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)