Levitation and collection of diamond fine particles in the rf plasma chamber equipped with a hot filament

摘要

We demonstrate the levitation of diamond fine particles in a H_2 rf plasma chamber equipped with a hot filament and heated electrodes. The levitation conditions should be carefully chosen to compensate the strong thermophoretic forces caused by the filament and the electrodes. This levitation technique with the existence of a hot filament can be applied, e.g., for the efficient growth of diamond layers on seed particles injected and levitated in an rf plasma with reactive gases, e.g., CH_4/H_2. Additionally, the method for direct capture of levitated particles on a planar substrate was established, which is useful if it is necessary to analyze the particles after the levitation.