Bias enhanced diamond nucleation on Mo and CrN coated stainless steel substrates in a HFCVD reactor

Bias enhanced nucleation was explored in order to obtain a high diamond nucleation density on Mo and CrN coated stainless steel substrates in a hot-filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) reactor. Several bias geometries were tested on their nucleation enhancement for diamond on molybdenum. It was found that the nucleation properties observed for Mo were not much different for CrN coated stainless steel. The application of a bias between the filament and a cathode above the substrate at floating potential resulted in locally high diamond nucleation densities of up to 3∙109 cm− 2.