Original paper
Metastable diamond synthesis - Principles and applications
Klages, Claus-Peter
European Journal of Mineralogy Volume 7 Number 4 (1995), p. 767 - 774
22 references
published: Jul 26, 1995
manuscript accepted: Feb 15, 1995
manuscript received: Oct 27, 1994
DOI: 10.1127/ejm/7/4/0767
Abstract
Abstract The first reproducible synthesis of diamond under metastable conditions was achieved reproducibly by Eversole at Union Carbide Corporation in the early 195O's, even before the high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) experiments at General Electric were successful. Nevertheless, it has taken almost 30 years for the scientific-technical community to be generally convinced of the feasibility of continuous low-pressure diamond growth from activated gas phases. Since then, however, diamond chemical vapour deposition (CVD) technology has progressed considerably: a multitude of deposition processes are now available to grow diamond films, while textured and hetero-epitaxial (on Si) deposition has also been achieved. New technological applications of diamond films, which make use of their outstanding physical properties, are continuing to emerge. Simultaneously, there has been rapid progress in the understanding of which molecular species and physico-chemical processes are relevant for CVD growth of the metastable diamond phase, mainly due to the development of data-bases of chemical gas phase reactions in C-H-O systems using results of research on flames and combustion. This paper intends to give a short overview of the growth processes and different applications of diamond films.
Keywords
diamond • chemical vapor deposition • growth mechanism • hetero-epitaxy