NUCLEATION ENHANCEMENT FOR CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION OF DIAMOND

摘要

2125873 9313242 PCTABS00024 A method and apparatus for enhancing the nucleation of diamond by pretreating a substrate by electrically biasing a diamond film adjacent the substrate while exposing the substrate and the thus biased diamond film to a carbon-containing plasma. The bias pretreatment may be maintained for a time period in the range of about 1 hour to 2 hours to achieve a high diamond nucleation density. Alternatively, the biasing may be continued until diamond film formation is indicated by a change in reflectivity of the surface of the substrate. The biasing pretreating may be used to nucleate diamond heteroepitaxially on a substrate having a surface film formed of a material having a relatively close lattice match to diamond, such as .beta.-silicon carbide. The apparatus includes a laser reflection interferometer to monitor the surface of the substrate. The laser reflection interferometer is used to monitor growth of the diamond film and cooperates with a controller to control the processing parameters during the diamond growing process.