Effect of Pressure on the Nucleation of Diamond with Additionof Oxygen in the Microwave Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition System

Effect of oxygen addition on diamond film deposition at higher pressure was studied. It was found that addition of oxygen suppressed diamond nucleation, and the effect of suppression increased with increasing pressure, and at certain pressure level diamond deposition was completely prohibited. Etching effect due to oxygen addition dominated at the very early stage (nucleation stage), therefore it is still possible to take the advantage of oxygen addition on quality improvement of diamond films by introducing oxygen after the nucleation stage.