Effects of cobalt and cobalt oxide buffer layers on nucleation and growth of hot filament chemical vapor deposition diamond films on silicon (100)

Abstract

An initial study on the nucleation and growth of diamond, using hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) technique, was carried out on Co and CoO thin buffer layers on non-carbon substrates (Si (100)), and the results were compared with conventional scratching method. The substrate temperature during the growth was maintained at 750±50 °C. A mixture of CH4 and H2 (1: 100 volume %) was used for deposition. The total pressure during the two hour deposition was 30±2 Torr. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) study showed the diamond nucleation at different time periods on the Co and CoO seed layers. It is observed that Co helps in nucleation of diamond even though it is known to degrade the quality of diamond film on W-C substrate. The reason for improvement in our study is attributed to (i) the low content of Co (~0.01%) compared to W-C substrate (~5–6%), (ii) formation of CoSi2 phase at elevated temperature, which might work as nucleation sites for diamond. SEM analysis reveals a change in the morphology of diamond film grown on cobalt oxide and a significant reduction in the size of densely packed crystallites. Raman spectroscopic analysis further suggests an improvement in the quality of the film grown on CoO buffer layer.