Surface reaction kinetics of gas-phase diamond growth

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Abstract
Surface reaction kinetics for diamond growth by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) was investigated experimentally. The temperature dependence for the growth rate exhibited surface‐reaction controlled kinetics with the activation energy of about 23 kcal/mol below 900 °C. The dependence of the growth rate on the other CVD parameters and the corresponding calculated concentration of H and CH3 gave the growth rate (GR) expression GR= kX0HX1CH3, where k and Xi are a rate constant and the mole fraction of species i, respectively. A decrease in the activation energy for apparent diamond‐film growth with increasing nondiamond carbon content was also discussed in relation to the role of gaseous H atoms. A dramatic decrease of the activation energy occurred at high pressure (300 Torr) deposition, since the growth kinetics changed to the diffusion controlled growth.