A HIGH GRAVITY CHEMICAL-VAPOR-DEPOSITION APPARATUS

A high gravity centrifuge facility in which thin films can be produced , especially from gas phase, was developed. The centrifuge facility al lows high gravity materials processing up to 100g (g denotes the terre strial gravity acceleration). With a minor modification, not only thin films from gas phase but also hulk materials could be produced in the facility. For the first demonstrative attempt in this facility, diamo nd thin films were grown under high gravity conditions up to 100g by m eans of the direct current-plasma chemical vapor deposition method, in which diamond was deposited on a molybdenum substrate in a moderate p ressure condition (27 kPa) of the gas how of hydrogen-methane mixture (methane 1 vol %). The details of the facility are described, and the preliminary results on the high gravity diamond synthesis are presente d. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(97)00211-6].