Low Pressure Diamond Growth Using a Secondary Radical Source

ABSTRACTA novel method for chemical vapor deposition and atomic layer epitaxyusing radical precursors under medium vacuum conditions is being developed. Fluorine atoms are generated by thermal dissociation in a hot tube and abstract hydrogen atoms from precursor molecules injected immediately downstream of the source, generating radicals with completechemical specificity. The radical precursors are then transported to the growing substrate surface under nearly collision-free conditions. To date we have grown diamond films from CCl3 or CH3 radicals together with atomic hydrogen, generated by injecting CHCI3 or CH4 and H2 into the F atom stream at reactor pressures between 10−4 and 10−2 Torn This approach should be ideal for low-temperature growth and atomic layer epitaxy: growth rates remain relatively high because activation energies for radical reactions are typically small and because the cycle times for atomic layer epitaxy can be reduced to die msec range by fast gas-stream switching, and contamination and segregation are minimized by keeping the surface “capped” by chemisorbed intermediates.