Comparative study on dry etching of polycrystalline diamond thin films

0389069 - FZÚ 2013 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Ižák, Tibor - Kromka, Alexander - Babchenko, Oleg - Ledinský, Martin - Hruška, Karel - Verveniotis, Elisseos
Comparative study on dry etching of polycrystalline diamond thin films.
Vacuum. Roč. 86, č. 6 (2012), s. 799-802. ISSN 0042-207X. E-ISSN 1879-2715
R&D Projects: GA AV ČR KAN400100701; GA AV ČR(CZ) IAAX00100902; GA AV ČR(CZ) KAN400480701
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10100521
Keywords : polycrystalline diamond * reactive ion etching * smoothing * diamond nanorods
Subject RIV: BM - Solid Matter Physics ; Magnetism
Impact factor: 1.530, year: 2012
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042207X11002612

The reactive ion etching technique was used to etch diamond films. In this study we investigate the influence of process parameters (pressure, rf power, gas composition). The surface morphology of etched diamond films was characterized by SEM and the chemical composition of the etched film part was investigated by Raman Spectroscopy. We found that the gas composition had a crucial effect on the diamond film morphology. The use of CF4 gas resulted in flatter surfaces and lateral-like etching, while the use of pure O2 gas resulted in needle-like structures. Addition of argon to the reactant precursors increased the ion bombardment, which in turn increased the formation of non-diamond phases. Next, increasing the rf power from 100 to 500 W increased the etching rate from 5.4 to 8.6 μm/h. In contrast to this observation, the rise of process pressure from 80 to 150 mTorr lowered the etching rate from 5.6 down to 3.6 μm/h.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0217970