Growth of diamond and diamond-like carbon films on Si(100) substrates via hot filament chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

Diamond films were grown using a locally developed hot filament chemical vapor deposition device. The development of chemical vapor deposition techniques for diamond thin films has produced great interest since it produces polycrystalline films with mechanical, optical and thermal properties that are near to that of natural diamond.
The formation of the film greatly depends on the deposition pressure, substrate temperature and gas concentration. It is a known fact that increasing the substrate temperature means better epitaxy for most film-substrate combinations and for most chemical vapor deposition techniques. Most studies show that the typical temperature range for diamond growth is at 700-950 degrees Celsius. The methane concentration directly affects the type of formation that will occur on the film. For diamond deposition on Si(100) substrates, a relatively low methane concentration (around 1%-3%) should be used. Higher concentrations would lead to the formation of amorphous carbon or graphite.