High temperature chemistry of CVD (chemical vapor deposition) diamond growth

Abstract

Understanding the high temperature chemistry of diamond deposition is the key to turning recently developed CVD techniques for synthesizing diamond coatings into technological applications utilizing its unique combination of properties. This paper reviews the state of our knowledge for diamond deposition from carbon-hydrogen systems, a knowledge that has benefited greatly from combustion research over the past several decades. Generic kinetic considerations have generated useful limits on and trends in deposition behavior, and proposed mechanisms have provided insights into our thinking about molecular processes which transform hydrocarbons into a diamond structure. The type of information and research thought to be of most use in furthering our understanding of the high temperature chemistry of diamond deposition is summarized at the end of this paper. © 1994 IUPAC