The Mechanism of Diamond Nucleation from Energetic Species
Y. Lifshitz,1*
Th. Köhler,2
Th. Frauenheim,2
I. Guzmann,3
A. Hoffman,3
R. Q. Zhang,1
X. T. Zhou,1
S. T. Lee1
A model for diamond nucleation by energetic species (for
example, bias-enhanced nucleation) is proposed. It involves spontaneous bulk nucleation of a diamond embryo cluster in a dense, amorphous carbon hydrogenated matrix; stabilization of the cluster by favorable boundary conditions of nucleation sites and hydrogen termination; and
ion bombardment-induced growth through a preferential displacement mechanism. The model is substantiated by density functional
tight-binding molecular dynamics simulations and an experimental study
of the structure of bias-enhanced and ion beam-nucleated films. The
model is also applicable to the nucleation of other materials by
energetic species, such as cubic boron nitride.
1 Center of Super Diamond and Advanced Films
and Department of Physics and Materials Science, City University Hong
Kong, Hong Kong SAR.
2 Universitäte/Gesamthochschule Paderborn,
D-33095 Paderborn, Germany.
3 Department of
Chemistry, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
apshay{at}cityu.edu.hk
On leave from Soreq NRC, Yavne 81800, Israel.
Present address: Soreq NRC, Yavne 81800, Israel.
