This paper reports on a new technique for surface pre-treatment of sil
icon and other substrate materials to enhance diamond nucleation befor
e diamond deposition. Polycrystalline diamond particles (ballas or cau
liflower diamond particles) are grown in a CVD environment under hydro
carbon concentrations of 8-15%. After 15 min of growth, the substrate
is removed from the process equipment and mechanically treated so that
the ballas diamonds are disintegrated into their constituent nanomete
r-sized diamond crystals and are evenly spread over the surface of the
substrate. The small diamond crystals then act as nuclei for the form
ation of a diamond film in the subsequent diamond growth process. Nucl
eation densities on virgin silicon wafers of 5 x 10(10) cm(-2) have be
en achieved with this method, and it is believed that even higher nucl
eation densities can be achieved by further optimisation of the proces
s. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.