Growth of ultrananocrystalline diamond film by DC Arcjet plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Self-standing diamond films were grown by DC Arcjet plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The feed gasses were Ar/H 2/CH 4, in which the flow ratio of CH 4 to H 2 (FCH4/FH2) was varied from 5% to 20%. Two distinct morphologies were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), i.e. the pineapple-like morphology and the cauliflower-like morphology. It was found that the morphologies of the as-grown films are strongly dependent on the flow ratio of CH 4 to H 2 in the feed gasses. High resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) survey results revealed that there were nanocrystalline grains within the pineapple-like films whilst there were ultrananocrystalline grains within cauliflower-like films. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results suggested that (110) crystalline plane was the dominant surface in the cauliflower-like films whilst (100) crystalline plane was the dominant surface in the pineapple-like films. Raman spectroscopy revealed that nanostructured carbon features could be observed in both types of films. Plasma diagnosis was carried out in order to understand the morphology dependent growth mechanism. It could be concluded that the film morphology was strongly influenced by the density of gas phases. The gradient of C2 radical was found to be different along the growth direction under the different growth conditions. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Carbon nanowalls grown by microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition during the carbonization of polyacrylonitrile fibers

We used microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MPECVD) to carbonize an electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor to form carbon fibers. Scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were used to characterize the fibers at different evolution stages. It was found that MPECVD-carbonized PAN fibers do not exhibit any significant change in the fiber diameter, whilst conventionally carbonized PAN fibers show a 33% reduction in the fiber diameter. An additional coating of carbon nanowalls (CNWs) was formed on the surface of the carbonized PAN fibers during the MPECVD process without the assistance of any metallic catalysts. The result presented here may have a potential to develop a novel, economical, and straightforward approach towards the mass production of carbon fibrous materials containing CNWs. © 2013 American Institute of Physics.

Furnace chemical vapor deposition (FCVD) method for special optical fibers fabrication

The features of the Furnace Chemical Vapor Deposition (FCVD) method of manufacturing preforms for special optical fibers are considered. It is shown that misalignment of substrate silica tube and furnace hole axes has a negative effect on the quality of fabricated preforms, leading to angular and radial asymmetry of the refractive index profile. Ways of getting rid of this and other disadvantages of the FCVD method are described. Some advantages of the FCVD method over the MCVD method are shown. It was demonstrated that the FCVD method, despite some drawbacks, allows to manufacture high-quality fiber preforms with good symmetry of the refractive index profile, and thus it is promising for fabrication of dispersion, dispersion varying and active fibers. © 2011 Copyright Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

Effect of methane concentration in hydrogen plasma on hydrogen impurity incorporation in thick large-grained polycrystalline diamond films

We investigate the impact of methane concentration in hydrogen plasma on the growth of large-grained polycrystalline diamond (PCD) films and its hydrogen impurity incorporation. The diamond samples were produced using high CH4 concentration in H2 plasma and high power up to 4350 W and high pressure (either 105 or 110 Torr) in a microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) system. The thickness of the free-standing diamond films varies from 165 µm to 430 µm. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), micro-Raman spectroscopy and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy were used to characterize the morphology, crystalline and optical quality of the diamond samples, and bonded hydrogen impurity in the diamond films, respectively. Under the conditions employed here, when methane concentration in the gas phase increases from 3.75% to 7.5%, the growth rate of the PCD films rises from around 3.0 µm/h up to 8.5 µm/h, and the optical active bonded hydrogen impurity content also increases more than one times, especially the two CVD diamond specific H related infrared absorption peaks at 2818 and 2828 cm−1 rise strongly; while the crystalline and optical quality of the MCD films decreases significantly, namely structural defects and non-diamond carbon phase content also increases a lot with increasing of methane concentration. Based on the results, the relationship between methane concentration and diamond growth rate and hydrogen impurity incorporation including the form of bonded infrared active hydrogen impurity in CVD diamonds was analyzed and discussed. The effect of substrate temperature on diamond growth was also briefly discussed. The experimental findings indicate that bonded hydrogen impurity in CVD diamond films mainly comes from methane rather than hydrogen in the gas source, and thus can provide experimental evidence for the theoretical study of the standard methyl species dominated growth mechanism of CVD diamonds grown with methane/hydrogen mixtures.