Polycrystalline diamond formation by post-growth ion bombardment of sputter-deposited amorphous carbon films Original Research Article

Post-growth Ar+ ion beam bombardment (IBB) of amorphous carbon (a-C) films on Si, with energies above 1 keV, induces several structural modifications in the films, including the formation of diamond, graphite and SiC grains. X-ray diffraction (in both conventional and grazing incidence geometry) and high resolution electron microscopy were used to study the structure of the as grown films and the phases – with emphasis to diamond – that resulted after IBB. The a-C films morphology and density were also studied by X-ray reflectivity and show an increase in film density upon IBB.