PLASMA-ENHANCED DIAMOND NUCLEATION ON SI

Both positive and negative bias effects on the nucleation of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond have been investigated thoroughly in microwave plasma. Prior to the conventional microwave plasma CVD growth of diamond, positive or negative biasing pretreatment has been performed. The pretreatment conditions were varied in terms of substrate bias voltage (-100 similar to + 100 V), pretreatment pressure (0.2 similar to 15 Torr), and methane fraction (2 similar to 40%) in hydrogen source gas. It is found that the positive substrate bias as well as the negative bias are effective for the nucleation of diamond.