Independent control of ion energy and flux in plasma-enhanced diamond growth

Ion energy and flux incident upon a positively biased substrate in an induc tively coupled plasma (ICP) have been analyzed during diamond growth at a p ressure of 20 mTorr. An electrically floated characteristic of the ICP sour ce allowed a shift up of the plasma potential by the biasing. For the subst rate bias (V-b) above 20 V, the ion energy remained constant, while the ion flux was shown to decrease with increasing V-b. The diamond film grown wit h a high ion flux was composed of well-coalesced large scale islands as com pared to that with a low ion flux. The results provide a way to control ion energy and flux independently and its advantage for ion-assisted diamond g rowth. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)00225-9].