Comparative study of homoepitaxial single crystal diamond growth at continuous and pulsed mode of MPACVD reactor operation

Homoepitaxial growth of single crystal diamond by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition in pulsed regime of a 2.45 GHz MPACVD reactor operation at pulse repetition rates of 150 and 250 Hz was investigated. The high quality CVD diamond layers were deposited in the H2–CH4 gas mixture containing 4% and 8% of methane, gas pressures of 250 and 260 Torr and substrate temperature of 900 °C without any nitrogen addition. The (100) HPHT single crystal diamond seeds 2.5 × 2.5 × 0.3 mm (type Ib) were used as substrates. At pulse repetition rate 150 Hz the high quality single crystal diamond was grown with growth rate of 22 μm/h. The comparison of the single crystal diamond growth rates in CW and pulsed wave regimes of MPACVD reactor operation at microwave power density 200 W/cm3 was made. It was found that at equal power density, the growth rate in pulsed wave regime was higher than in CW regime. Differences in single crystal diamond growth for two sets of experiments (with continuous and pulsed wave regimes) were explained.

► Single crystal diamond growth in PW mode of 2.45 GHz MPACVD reactor was investigated.
► At equal power density, the growth rate in pulsed wave mode was higher than in CW.
► At 150 Hz the high quality single crystal diamond was grown at 22 μm/h.