The effect of oxygen and nitrogen additives on the growth of nanocrystalline diamond films

Nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films have been synthesized by using either nitrogen addition or oxygen addition to conventional CH4/H2 mixtures besides the most commonly used Ar/CH4 with or without H2 chemistry. However, the synthesis of NCD films using both nitrogen and oxygen addition simultaneously into CH4/H2 gases has not been reported thus far. In this work, we investigate the effect of simultaneous O2 and N2 addition to CH4/H2 plasma on the growth of nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films, focusing particularly on the ratio between the amount of O2 and N2 additives into conventional CH4/H2 gas mixtures on the morphology, microstructure, texture, and crystalline quality of the NCD films. The NCD samples were produced by using a high microwave power (3 kW) in a microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapour deposition reactor with a maximum power of 5 kW on large silicon wafers, 2 inches in diameter, and characterized by high-resolution scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction and micro-Raman spectroscopy. Our work demonstrates that, under the conditions investigated here, NCD films can be formed when the ratio of O2/N2 addition is increased from 0 through 1 up to 7/3 (at higher than 7/3, for example 4, a large-grained polycrystalline diamond film will form), and the crystalline quality is significantly enhanced with the increase of oxygen addition. The mechanism of O2 and N2 additives on the formation of NCD films is briefly studied.