Ion beam nucleation of diamond

Nucleation of diamond on non-diamond substrates is one of the most studied and least understood elements of the field of diamond films. This issue is crucial for the production of epitaxial single crystalline diamond on silicon, The most reliable method for nucleation of diamond on nondiamond substrates currently applied is bias enhanced nucleation (BEN). Oriented growth of diamond on non-diamond substrates is achieved by bombardment of the biased substrate with energetic species formed in a CH/sub 4//H/sub 2/ plasma (several percent CH/sub 4/). Previous attempts to systematically nucleate diamond on non-diamond substrates by direct ion beam bombardment have failed, though sporadic reports on diamond formation using ion beams have appeared. In the present work we report the nucleation of diamond on silicon substrates by direct ion beam deposition (using a Kaufmann source fed by a mixture of gases). High resolution TEM reveals diamond nuclei in two different nucleation environments: directly on the silicon substrate; and embedded in an amorphous carbon matrix.