THE NUCLEATION OF HIGHLY ORIENTED DIAMOND ON SILICON VIA AN ALTERNATING-CURRENT SUBSTRATE BIAS

A new bias-enhanced nucleation method of forming highly oriented diamo nd on Si(100) is reported using an alternating current bias source. Th e percentage of aligned particles via alternating current bias-enhance d nucleation (ac BEN) was greater than 50%. This is compared to less t han 10% highly oriented particles when using a conventional negative d e substrate bias. Based on previous work in this area, the peak negati ve voltage portion of the ac wave form is believed to be responsible f or enhancing diamond nucleation. The positive and moderate negative vo ltage portion of the ac wave form appears to aid the process of formin g the highly oriented diamond. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.