Abstract

It has been found that the addition of a small amount of oxygen at the 10²-10³ ppm level to the mixture of CH₄ and H₂ permits diamond deposition at significantly lower substrate and filament temperatures compared to those in a conventional hot-filament assisted chemical vapor depositon (HFCVD) of diamond. Within a narrow region of feed gas composition, the operable substrate temperature can be extended to as low as 400 °C, and filament temperature to 1350 °C, where no significant amount of H and CH₃ are expected to be produced by the filament. High quality diamond films have been deposited with reasonable growth rates at filament temperatures as low as 1600 °C and substrate temperatures as low as 580 °C. Power consumption is reduced. The filament is subjected to less distortion, and its lifetime is extended indefinitely.

© 1995 Optical Society of America