Plasma-enhanced Deposition of Nano-Structured Carbon Films

Abstract

By pre-treating substrate with different methods and patterning the catalyst, selective and patterned growth of diamond and graphitic nano-structured carbon films have been realized through DC Plasma-Enhanced Hot Filament Chemical Vapor Deposition (PE-HFCVD). Through two-step processing in an HFCVD reactor, novel nano-structured composite diamond films containing a nanocrystalline diamond layer on the top of a nanocone diamond layer have been synthesized. Well-aligned carbon nanotubes, diamond and graphitic carbon nanocones with controllable alignment orientations have been synthesized by using PE-HFCVD. The orientation of the nanostructures can be controlled by adjusting the working pressure. In a Microwave Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (MW-PECVD) reactor, high-quality diamond films have been synthesized at low temperatures (310°C-550°C) without adding oxygen or halogen gas in a newly developed processing technique. In this process, carbon source originates from graphite etching, instead of hydrocarbon. The lowest growth temperature for the growth of nanocrystalline diamond films with a reasonable growth rate without addition of oxygen or halogen is 260°C.