Method of porous diamond deposition on porous silicon

In this paper, we discuss the experimental results of the fabrication of porous diamond/porous silicon and porous diamond structures by chemical vapor deposition of diamond over a skeleton of porous silicon, replicating the porous surface geometry around the Si pores and also creating new porous diamond structures. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that the diamond nuclei are deposited on the top of the porous silicon skeleton, forming isolated grains in the first nucleation stages, and then growing like the usual structure of most ceramic materials, making a self-sustained porous diamond structure. Raman spectroscopy revealed that the diamond films are of good quality, close to that of diamond films grown on crystalline silicon. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.