Growth diamond-like carbon films

Since the main parameter influencing diamond-like carbon film structure is the energy of bombarding ions, it is expected that the same happens with a-C H films. In fact, it was found that in RFPECVD deposition of a-C H films, the variation of substrate self-bias results in strong changes of film growth, composition, structure, and properties. 

For some time, mixtures of H2 and natural gas have been used for chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth of diamond-like carbon (DEC) films. It is now possible to use this technique to grow diamond seed crystals to produce clear, perfect colorless diamonds. Diamonds grown by the high-pressure methods are invariably doped and thus colored. One company, Apollo, has used the CVD technique to grow 1-ct diamonds. 

It was suggested by Spencer et al. in 1976 that the diamond like films are formed due to preferential sputtering of sp sites compared to sp sites. Later in 1990, Lifshitz et al. observed that this was unlikely due to the low sputtering yield of carbon and suggested the subplantation model . This model proposes that film growth from hyperthermal species occurs via the... 

WG Eversole. Synthesis of diamond from carbon monoxide. Union Carbide Report, June 6, 1956. In JC Angus. History and current status of diamond growth at metastable conditions. Diamond and Diamond-Like Films. In KV Ravi, JP Dismukes, eds. Electrochemical Society, Pennington, NJ 1989, p 1. 

It is of most intrigue that unlike previous nucleation models, this model assumes a formation of diamond nuclei or nucleation sites inside the P-SiC layer, while the p-SiC layer concurrently plays a role of basal lattice for diamond epitaxial growth like in the precedent models. The second point of intrigue is the fact that the exposure and survival of the diamond nuclei or nucleation sites are made possible by a subtle balance of etching rates of Si, P-SiC, diamond, and other forms of carbon. This is consistent with the fact that HOD films can be formed only when the substrate was pretreated by proper BEN conditions. 

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