Influence of silicon surface preparation and orientation on diamond nucleation and growth in CH_4/H system discharge

摘要

The silicon surface nucleation before the CVD growth of diamond has been a subject of different interest in the last years. In order to grow high quality diamond films for such applications in various fields one has to perform a per-treatment of silicon wafer and understand the processes involved in the modification of the surface properties step by step. A lot of methods have been proposed to enhance the nucleation on the silicon substrate in order to enhance the diamond orientation and growth rate : (i) abrasion with diamond powder or other hard powders or recently a mixture of diamond and metal powders, (ii) carburisation of the substrate surface and/or negative biasing during the initial stages of growth; (iii) growth in optimized conditions and negative biasing in the last minutes of deposition in order to perform very oriented surfaces.