Abstract
Iron nanoparticles were employed to induce the synthesis of diamond on molybdenum, silicon, and quartz substrates. Diamond films were grown using conventional conditions for diamond synthesis by hot filament chemical vapor deposition, except that dispersed iron oxide nanoparticles replaced the seeding. X-ray diffraction, visible, and ultraviolet Raman Spectroscopy, energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy , electron energy-loss spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were employed to study the carbon bonding nature of the films and to analyze the carbon clustering around the seed nanoparticles leading to diamond synthesis. The results indicate that iron oxide nanoparticles lose the O atoms, becoming thus active C traps that induce the formation of a dense region of trigonally and tetrahedrally bonded carbon around them with the ensuing precipitation of diamond-type bonds that develop into microcrystalline diamond films under chemical vapor deposition conditions. This approach to diamond induction can be combined with dip pen nanolithography for the selective deposition of diamond and diamond patterning while avoiding surface damage associated to diamond-seeding methods.
Highlights
Many challenges remain opening regarding the integration of diamond into electronic devices
Higher diamond nucleation densities with significant amounts of amorphous carbon (a–C) are attained by depositing a thin layer of iron on silicon substrates, suggesting that a high carbon concentration resulting in a saturated carbide layer during the initial stage of nucleation is required for producing diamond nucleation sites [8, 9]
The diamond growth rates were around 1.7–1.9 lm/h, which is substantially high for hot filament CVD (HFCVD), and the observed nucleation densities were around 107 cm-2, corresponding well to the initial nFeO density and similar to those typically obtained by diamondseeded diamond deposition [14]
Summary
Many challenges remain opening regarding the integration of diamond into electronic devices. They indicate that there is a relatively small presence of sp2-bonded carbon in the nFeO-induced diamond films.
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