Vg. Babaev et al., DIAMOND FILM FORMATION BY LASER EVAPORATION OF HIGHLY DISPERSIVE DIAMOND IN A HYDROGEN PLASMA ENVIRONMENT, DIAMOND AND RELATED MATERIALS, 4(10), 1995, pp. 1200-1204
Previously it has been shown that diamond films produced by laser evap
oration (LE) of highly dispersive diamond (HDD) possess a broad size d
istribution of conglomerates. As a result the produced diamond him was
not smooth and homogeneous. In this paper the method was improved by
means of HDD laser ablation in hydrogen d.c. plasma (P = 10 Torr). The
influence of hydrogen on the LE process has been investigated. It was
shown that the introduction of H plasma yields a destruction of large
agglomerates in a vapour flux and protects the diamond particles surf
ace from reconstruction. The diamond films produced by laser ablation
of diamond in hydrogen plasma atmosphere (LADH) on Si and WC-Co substr
ates at room temperature consist of dense packed islands with mean siz
e about 200 Angstrom. The film thickness was 1500-2500 Angstrom.