The mechanism of diamond nucleation from energetic species.
A model for diamond nucleation by energetic species (for example, bias-enhanced nucleation) is proposed. It involves spontaneous bulk nucleation of a diamond embryo cluster in a dense, amorphous carbon hydrogenated matrix; stabilization of the cluster by favorable boundary conditions of nucleation sites and hydrogen termination; and ion bombardment-induced growth through a preferential displacement mechanism. The model is substantiated by density functional tight-binding molecular dynamics simulations and an experimental study of the structure of bias-enhanced and ion beam-nucleated films. The model is also applicable to the nucleation of other materials by energetic species, such as cubic boron nitride.
Lifshitz
Y
Y
Center of Super Diamond and Advanced Films and Department of Physics and Materials Science, City University Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR. apshay@cityu.edu.hk
Köhler
T
T
Frauenheim
T
T
Guzmann
I
I
Hoffman
A
A
Zhang
R Q
RQ
Zhou
X T
XT
Lee
S T
ST