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.
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
Y
Y
Lifshitz
T
T
Köhler
T
T
Frauenheim
I
I
Guzmann
A
A
Hoffman
R Q
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Zhang
X T
XT
Zhou
S T
ST
Lee