Investigation of nitrogen addition on hydrogen incorporation in CVD diamond films from polycrystalline to nanocrystalline

The effect of nitrogen addition in the gas phase on hydrogen impurity incorporation into CVD diamond films was investigated. A series of thick diamond films of different morphology and quality ranging from large-grained polycrystalline to fine-grained nanocrystalline were deposited on silicon wafers using a 5 kW microwave plasma assisted CVD system. They were obtained only by changing the small amount of oxygen and nitrogen addition while keeping all other input parameters the same. Bonded hydrogen impurity in these diamond films was studied by using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. It was found that with increasing the amount of nitrogen addition in the gas phase, the produced diamond films from large-grained polycrystalline gradually shift to fine-grained nanocrystalline and their crystalline quality is drastically degraded, while the amount of incorporated hydrogen impurity in the diamond films increases sharply. The role of nitrogen additive on diamond growth and hydrogen incorporation is discussed. These results shed light into the growth mechanism of CVD diamond films ranging from polycrystalline to nanocrystalline, and the incorporation mechanism of hydrogen impurity in CVD diamonds. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.