Mechanical Stiffness and Dissipation in Ultrananocrystalline Diamond Microresonators

摘要

We have characterized mechanical properties of ultrananocrystalline diamond UNCD thin films grown using the hot filament chemical vapor deposition HFCVD technique at 680 degrees C, significantly lower than the conventional growth temperature of 800 degrees C. The films have approx. 4.3% sp(exp 2 )content in the near-surface region as revealed by near edge x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. The films, approx. 1 micrometer thick, exhibit a net residual compressive stress of 3701 MPa averaged over the entire 150 mm wafer. UNCD microcantilever resonator structures and overhanging ledges were fabricated using lithography, dry etching, and wet release techniques. Overhanging ledges of the films released from the substrate exhibited periodic undulations due to stress relaxation. This was used to determine a biaxial modulus of 838 plus-or-minus 2 GPa. Resonant excitation and ring-down measurements in the kHz frequency range of the microcantilevers were conducted under ultrahigh vacuum UHV conditions in a customized UHV atomic force microscope system to determine Young's modulus as well as mechanical dissipation of cantilever structures at room temperature. Young's modulus is found to be 790 plus-or-minus 30 GPa. Based on these measurements, Poisson's ratio is estimated to be 0.057 plus-or-minus 0.038. The quality factors Q of these resonators ranged from 5000 to 16000. These Q values are lower than theoretically expected from the intrinsic properties of diamond. The results indicate that surface and bulk defects are the main contributors to the observed dissipation in UNCD resonators.