Jeedigunta, S., Spagnol, P., Bumgarner, J., & Kumar, A. (2007). Role of Nucleation on the Growth of Nanocrystalline Diamond (NCD) Films: A Particular Study in the Fabrication of Micro-cantilevers. MRS Proceedings, 1039, 1039-P15-41. doi:10.1557/PROC-1039-P15-41
Abstract
The effect of ultrasonic method of seeding on the growth of nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films has been studied by investigating the nucleation densities of two nanodiamond slurries- 1) nanodiamond powder suspended in acetone 2) mixture of titanium nanopowder and nanodiamond powder suspended in acetone. The former has resulted in a lower nucleation density on the order of 108 cm−2 while the later has increased the nucleation density by over two orders (>1010 cm−2) of magnitude. NCD films were grown on Si(100) substrates in a Cyrannus I Iplas microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MPECVD) reactor using 0.5% CH4, 1% H2 and 98.5% Ar gas chemistry at a substrate temperature of ∼ 750°C, pressure of 135 T and a microwave power of 1.8 kW. The double anchored cantilever structures with NCD as structural material have been fabricated by conventional photolithography. It was observed that the films grown after pre-treating the substrates in pure nanodiamond slurry have not provided a complete coverage at the anchor regions of the cantilevers due to the lower nucleation density. Hence[…]
