Effects of hydrogenated amorphous carbon interlayer on diamond nucleation

Abstract

Diamond was deposited at 850 °C by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on the interlayers with various intensity ratios (ID/IG) of the D band (~1400 cm-1) to the G band (~1570 cm-1) in the Raman spectra. Diamond could be grown only on the interlayers with higher ID/IG (≤1.95), and Nd was slightly increased to 3 × 106/cm2with ID/IG. The predeposition at 350 °C, which decreased the full-width at half-maximum of the broad D band, further increased Nd to 5 × 107/cm2. With 300 ÅA Pt overlayer on the interlayer, Nd was much more enhanced to 8 × 107/cm2. We suggest the sp3 bonded carbon clusters within the interlayer contribute to diamond nucleation, but they should be survived against atomic hydrogen etching during diamond deposition by increasing the sp3/sp2 ratio, by increasing the degree in clustering, or by protecting them with overlayer.