Bias-enhanced Nucleation of Oriented Diamond on Singlecrystalline 6H-SiC Substrates

Abstract

A bias-enhanced nucleation (BEN) technique in hot-filament chemical vapor deposition (HF-CVD) has been applied to single-crystalline 6H-SiC substrates for the deposition of oriented diamond films. The results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that on the (000\\overline1) face not only oriented diamond films with the relationship (111) Dia.//(000\\overline1) 6H-SiC and <110> Dia. // <11\\overline20> 6H-SiC, but also that high nucleation density (\\symbol"3E109 cm-2) has been achieved. In the case of deposition on the (0001) face of the 6H-SiC under the same experimental conditions, although the nucleation density of diamond was enhanced (above 109 cm-2), however, oriented diamond was not observed. The diamond nucleation density is greater on the (0001) face than on the (000\\overline1) face. The differences in oriented nucleation and nucleation density on these two faces are attributed to the difference of their specific free surface energy and chemical bonds.