Effect of pressure on nanocrystalline diamond films deposition by hot filament CVD technique from CH4/H2 gas mixture

The effect of pressure on the deposition of nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films in a hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) system was investigated employing a 1% CH4 in H2 gas mixture. With decreasing the growth pressure from 5.0 to 0.125 kPa, a gradual reduction of the diamond grain sizes from sub-micrometer to nanometer scale was observed, accompanied by the decline of surface roughness and the evolution of film cross-sectional morphologies changing from columnar to grainy structures. The pressure also exerted prominent influence on the film growth rate. At 2.8 kPa the growth rate featured a maximum, while decreasing to higher and lower pressures. Such pressure dependence of the diamond growth rate was suggested to result from two competing effects of pressure on the concentration of reactive species near the diamond growth surface. Further, the mechanism for the NCD film formation under low deposition pressures was discussed in light of the high secondary nucleation rate.