A characteristic ion energy and substrate temperature dependence for the formation of tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C), cubic boron nitride (c-BN) and related diamondlike materials by ion deposition has been experimentally observed. We present an analytical model for diamondlike film growth that describes the transient modification of the film structure by successive individual ion impact events. Each ion impact is treated as a cylindrical thermal spike with a finite initial width, taking into account energy loss and energy dissipation processes. We show that rearrangement of atoms during a cylindrical spike is the dominant mechanism leading to the formation of the diamondlike phase. The model explains quantitatively the observed ion energy dependence of the sp~3 bond fraction in ta-C, as well as the broad range of ion energies for which c-BN growth is observed.
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