Title: Effects of substrate-potential on the growth of diamond films through hot-filament chemical vapour deposition

Authors: M. Ali; I.A. Qazi

Addresses: Department of Physics, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, 44000, Park Road, Islamabad, Pakistan ' School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology, 44000, Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract: Variation in substrate bias greatly influences diamond film properties, which may be important in low power optoelectronics devices. In this work, effect of the floating potential (FP) on film uniformity, surface morphology and crystallite orientation was studied. Diamond films deposited on two pieces of silicon substrates, by using the hot-filament chemical vapour deposition technique, with one substrate set at ground potential (GP) while the other at a floating potential (FP). The standard techniques like scanning electron microscope and Raman spectra were used for film characterisation. It was observed that FP leads to increase in the density of {100} oriented grains but at the cost of growth rate and film uniformity.

Keywords: thin films; hot filament CVD; floating potential; cubic morphology; grain size; silicon substrates; ground potential; substrate bias; floating potential; diamond films; chemical vapour deposition; optoelectronics; film uniformity; surface morphology; crystallite orientation; grain density; growth rate.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSURFSE.2013.053706

International Journal of Surface Science and Engineering, 2013 Vol.7 No.2, pp.171 - 180

Received: 05 Jan 2012
Accepted: 07 Oct 2012
Published online: 02 Jul 2014 *

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