Laser-plasma deposition of diamond phase at low temperatures

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Abstract
Diamond crystallites were deposited on single-crystal (100) silicon substrates by the KrF (248 nm) excimer laser ablation of pyrolytic graphite in an argon rf plasma ambient. No external heating or seeding of the rf biased substrates was used. The rf plasma ambient caused surface restructuring of the silicon substrate, presumably via sputtering, which facilitated the nucleation of 0.01–0.15 μm diamond crystallites. The diamond cubic structure was confirmed by transmission electron diffraction analysis. However, the Raman 1332 cm−1 mode, characteristic of diamond, was not detected. The rf bias accelerates the ions in the laser-induced plume and rf plasma discharge towards the substrate likely facilitate nucleation of the diamond phase on the restructured and roughened silicon substrate.