Raman and Photoluminescence Spectroscopy of Nanocrystalline Diamond Films Grown by Hot Filament CVD

Abstract

Nanocrystalline diamond films were grown by hot filament chemical vapour deposition (HFCVD) in a mixture of methane and hydrogen gases. Three straight parallel wires filament configuration were used in the HFCVD system for the deposition of the films studied in this work. The deposition pressure for the growth of diamond films in this hot filament chemical vapour deposition (HFCVD) reactor have been optimized to be at 20 torr with the methane and hydrogen flow-rates fixed at 2 and 200 sccm respectively. The films studied in this work were grown at low deposition pressures of 2 and 5 torr using the same gas flow-rates used for the optimized diamond film growth including an additional film grown at pressure of 5 mbar with the methane flow-rate reduced to 1 sccm. The morphology showed the formation of closed packed diamond grains for the film grown at 5 torr with methane and hydrogen flow-rates fixed at 2 and 200 sccm. Decrease in pressure and methane flow-rate produced significant changes to the morphology of the diamond grains formed. X-ray diffraction showed that diamond phase phases were dominant in the films deposited at higher pressure. Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectral analysis were performed using spectra acquired at 325 and 514 nm excitation energies. Raman analysis revealed that increase in deposition pressure from 2 to 5 Torr resulted in the transformation of the film structure from diamond-like-carbon to nanocrystalline diamond structure. UV excitation produced high PL emission intensity at 2.1 eV and the PL intensity was highest for the films deposited at the lowest pressure. Visible excitation on the other hand produced low intensity broad PL emission for all the films between 1.2 and 2.5 eV and the PL intensity was high for the films deposited at the highest deposition pressure.