Abstract
We give evidence of nanometric size (5–15 nm) crystalline diamonds in carbon thin films obtained at low substrate temperature (15 °C) under the action of low pressure (0.1–0.3 Torr) 35 kHz excited CH 4/Ar (80–95%) plasmas. The decrease in Ar concentration was found to lead to higher film hardness while crystalline nanodiamonds are observed in a wide interval (1–3.5 h) of deposition times but only for very high Ar concentration (95%). The polycrystalline nanodiamond grains are found over 10–20% within an amorphous carbon matrix. It is suggested that the distribution of nanodiamond grains might be connected to the nonuniform ion energy distribution in the Ar-rich plasma generated at 35 kHz. Morphological and structural features of the deposited films were also investigated.
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