Diamond film synthesis at low temperature

Sulfar-assisted hot-filament chemical vapor deposition was successfully employed to synthesize diamond films at relatively low substrate temperatures, sub 500 degrees C, on Mo and glass substrates. This result is ascribed to sulfur-containing species that create an additional carbon transport channel to the substrate, which explicitly requires a large temperature gradient to effectively operate. The grain size and roughness were found to decrease when the Mo substrate temperature was decreased, while the quality factor only showed a slight decrease. Moreover, the diamond quality, grain size, and roughness were found to increase on glass substrates in comparison to those on Mo substrates. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.