Fabrication of layered self-standing diamond film by dc arc plasma jet chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

Layered self-standing diamond films, consisting of an upper layer, buffer layer, and a lower layer, were fabricated by fluctuating the ratio of methane to hydrogen in high power dc arc plasma jet chemical vapor deposition. There were micrometer-sized columnar diamond crystalline grains in both upper layer and lower layer. The size of the columnar diamond crystalline grains was bigger in the upper layer than that in the lower layer. The orientation of the upper layer was (110), while it was (111) for the lower layer. Raman results showed that no sp3 peak shift was found in the upper layer, but it was found and blueshifted in the lower layer. This indicated that the internal stress within the film body could be tailored by this layered structure. The buffer layer with nanometer-sized diamond grains formed by secondary nucleation was necessary in order to form the layered film. Growth rate was over 10μm∕h in layered self-standing diamond film fabrication.