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Synthesis of ultrasmooth nanostructured diamond films by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition using a He/H2/CH4/N2 gas mixture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

S. Chowdhury ,
Damon A. Hillman ,
Shane A. Catledge ,
Valery V. Konovalov  and
Yogesh K. Vohra
S. Chowdhury
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Birmingham, Alabama 35294-1170; and UAB Center for Nanoscale Materials and Biointegration (CNMB), University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294-1170
Damon A. Hillman
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Birmingham, Alabama 35294-1170; and UAB Center for Nanoscale Materials and Biointegration (CNMB), University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294-1170
Shane A. Catledge
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Birmingham, Alabama 35294-1170; and UAB Center for Nanoscale Materials and Biointegration (CNMB), University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294-1170
Valery V. Konovalov
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Birmingham, Alabama 35294-1170; and UAB Center for Nanoscale Materials and Biointegration (CNMB), University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294-1170
Yogesh K. Vohra*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Birmingham, Alabama 35294-1170; and UAB Center for Nanoscale Materials and Biointegration (CNMB), University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294-1170
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: ykvohra@uab.edu
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Abstract

Ultrasmooth nanostructured diamond (USND) films were synthesized on Ti–6Al–4V medical grade substrates by adding helium in H2/CH4/N2 plasma and changing the N2/CH4 gas flow from 0 to 0.6. We were able to deposit diamond films as smooth as 6 nm (root-mean-square), as measured by an atomic force microscopy (AFM) scan area of 2 μm2. Grain size was 4–5 nm at 71% He in (H2 + He) and N2/CH4 gas flow ratio of 0.4 without deteriorating the hardness (∼50–60 GPa). The characterization of the films was performed with AFM, scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and nanoindentation techniques. XRD and Raman results showed the nanocrystalline nature of the diamond films. The plasma species during deposition were monitored by optical emission spectroscopy. With increasing N2/CH4 feedgas ratio (CH4 was fixed) in He/H2/CH4/N2 plasma, a substantial increase of CN radical (normalized by Balmer Hα line) was observed along with a drop in surface roughness up to a critical N2/CH4 ratio of 0.4. The CN radical concentration in the plasma was thus correlated to the formation of ultrasmooth nanostructured diamond films.

Keywords

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD)NanostructureDiamond
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 21 , Issue 10 , October 2006 , pp. 2675 - 2682
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2006

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