Growth of nanocrystalline diamond films deposited by microwave plasma CVD system at low substrate temperatures

Nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films were grown by microwave plasma CVD in hydrogen-based gas mixture. Deposition experiments were performed at different temperatures varying from 370 to 1100 C. Before growth step, silicon (100) oriented substrates were nucleated by bias enhanced nucleation procedure and glass substrates were pretreated in ultrasonic bath. Optical, structural and morphological properties of NCD films were systematically studied by using an optical spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. NCD films were optically transparent in wide range and had high refractive index of 2.34. All deposited samples exhibited diamond characteristic line in the Raman spectrum. The growth kinetic was attributed to the hydrogen abstraction model. (c) 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim