The deposition of ultra nanocrystalline diamond films using a Ar/H/sub 2//CH/sub 4/ microwave discharge

Summary form only given. During the past ten years, plasma assisted chemical deposition of diamond thin films has been extensively investigated by many research groups. These experimental investigations have shown that diamond films can be synthesized from heated or ionized H/sub 2//CH/sub 4/ gas mixtures. The synthesized films result in a columnar growth texture with rough surface; i.e. the films are polycrystalline. This surface roughness usually prevents these films from being used in many wear and cutting tool applications. Thus, it is desirable to develop new methods to synthesize small crystalline and smooth diamond films. This investigation presents the experimental results concerned with the development of a new method of synthesizing smooth, ultra-nanocrystalline films. Building upon the experimental results of Gruen (Zhou et al., 1998), microwave plasma assisted film deposition is investigated using carbon containing Ar plasma. Experiments are performed with a MSU developed microwave plasma reactor. In this investigation the dominant input gas is argon. CH/sub 4/ concentrations are less than 3% and H/sub 2/ concentrations are limited to less than 6% of the total input gases.