Hot-filament chemical vapour deposition of nanodiamond on silicon nitride substrates

Abstract

Nearly continuous nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films were successfully grown on silicon nitride (Si3N4) substrates, after 1 h of deposition time, using hot-filament chemical vapour deposition technique with a gas mixture of Ar–CH4–H2. The optimal deposition parameters were: filament temperature≅2200 °C, substrate temperature≅650 °C, Ar/H2 gas flow ratio=1.2, CH4/H2 gas flow ratio=0.04 and gas mass flows of 50 or 100 ml min−1. The identification and characterization of NCD was done by μ-Raman spectroscopy, low incident beam angle diffraction and scanning electron microscopy.