Simulations of the dependence of gas physical parameters on deposition variables during HFCVD diamond films

Abstract

During the growth of the hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) diamond films, numerical simulations in a 2-D mathematical model were employed to investigate the influence of various deposition parameters on the gas physical parameters, including the temperature, velocity and volume density of gas. It was found that, even in the case of optimized deposition parameters, the space distributions of gas parameters were heterogeneous due primarily to the thermal blockage come from the hot filaments and cryogenic pump effect arisen from the cold reactor wall. The distribution of volume density agreed well with the. thermal round-flow phenomenon, one of the key obstacles to obtaining high growth rate in HFCVD process. In virtue of isothermal boundary with high temperature or adiabatic boundary condition of reactor wall, however, the thermal round-flow was profoundly reduced and as a consequence, the uniformity of gas physical parameters was considerably improved, as identified by the experimental films growth.