Role of Charge Produced by the Gas Activation in the CVD Diamond Process

Abstract

Charged carbon clusters which are formed by the gas activation are suggested to be responsible for the formation of the metastable diamond film. The number of carbon atoms in the cluster that can reverse the stability between diamond and graphite by the capillary effect increases sensitively with increasing the surface energy ratio of graphite to diamond. The gas activation process produces charges such as electrons and ions, which are energetically the strong heterogeneous nucleation sites for the supersaturated carbon vapor, leading to the formation of the charged clusters. Once the carbon clusters are charged, the surface energy of diamond can be reduced by the electrical double layer while that of graphite cannot because diamond is dielectric and graphite is conducting. The unusual phenomena observed in the chemical vapor deposition diamond process can be successfully approached by the charged cluster model. These phenomena include the diamond deposition with the simultaneous graphite etching, which is known as the thermodynamic paradox and the preferential formation of diamond on the convex edge, which is against the well-established concept of the heterogeneous nucleation.