Chemical vapour deposition of diamond from a novel capacitively coupled r.f. plasma source

Capacitively coupled (CC) (r.f.) plasmas offer major advantages over microwave-induced plasmas for the growth of large area homogeneous thin films. However, conventionally designed CC r.f. sources lead, at best, to extremely poor quality material when diamond growth is attempted. The first complete diamond overlayer to be grown with CC r.f. is reported here, where a novel magnetically enhanced source with ring electrodes has been used. The potential of this technique for the growth of high quality diamond films is discussed.