Influence of cathode temperature on gas discharge and growth of diamond films in DC-PCVD processing

In this paper, a novel direct current glow discharge plasma chemical vapor deposition (DC-PCVD) process, i.e., hot cathode DC-PCVD, is employed to deposit diamond films on molybdenum substrate. Compared with the conventional DC-PCVD method, the hot cathode DC-PCVD process is distinctive for its hot cathode with the temperature ranging from 700 to 1600 °C. Detailed experiments and analyses showed that the cathode temperature plays a key role in the stabilization of gas discharge and growth of diamond films.