Jb. Cui et al., DISCHARGE INDUCED ENHANCEMENT OF DIAMOND NUCLEATION ON SI VIA HOT-FILAMENT CHEMICAL-VAPOR-DEPOSITION, Journal of applied physics, 83(11), 1998, pp. 6072-6075
A new pretreatment method involving a direct current discharge was use
d to enhance diamond nucleation an mirror polished silicon substrates
employing hot filament chemical vapor deposition. A nucleation density
of 10(8)/cm(2) was obtained. The nucleation density on Si substrates
pretreated by the discharge at room temperature is similar to that tre
ated at high temperature. The discharge process was monitored by optic
al emission spectroscopy. Raman scattering, scanning electron microsco
py, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were employed to analyze the
pretreated Si substrate. The results suggest that a thin carbon layer
formed during the discharge pretreatment process which contributes to
the enhancement of diamond nucleation. (C) 1998 American Institute of
Physics. [S0021-8979(98)00811-1].