Investigation of diamond deposition on the diamond, silicon and quartz substrates by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition and Monte Carlo simulations

Abstract

In this paper, a growth mechanism of diamond utilizing Microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) on various substrates alongside Monte-Carlo simulations is presented for the first time. The values of roughness exponent (α) have been estimated on diamond, silicon and quartz substrates while as the growth exponent (β) is found out through the grown diamond film on a diamond substrate. The roughness exponent has been investigated by evaluating the height-height correlation function for the diamond interface. For diamond, silicon, and quartz the roughness exponent α is found to be 0.42, 0.21 and 0.25 respectively. The value of α < 0.5 suggests that diamond deposited on silicon and quartz surface has more gagged surface than the diamond deposited on diamond substrates. It has been investigated that the growth exponent β = 0.45 ± 0.18 is dominated by random deposition with diffusion during the growth process. Monte-Carlo simulation with varying sticking probability p has been carried out in order to reconstruct the interface obtained in experiments. It is found that β decreases with sticking probability p. The interface reconstructed through simulations for this sticking probability shows voids and vacancies during the deposition. Raman spectra and x-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) study confirm the diamond phase of carbon (sp3) is present in the grown films. The diamond grown in the setup used for this study exhibits crystalline nature and long-range order as suggested Raman spectroscopy.