Growth of boron doped diamond films on gold coated substrates with and without gold nanoparticle formation

This work describes the growth of boron-doped nanocrystalline diamond (B:NCD) films on gold-coated substrates and methodologies for achieving B:NCD with either smooth morphologies or on top of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) of varying sizes controlled by the surface pretreatment. B:NCD is deposited uniformly over similar to 1 cm(2) gold-coated substrates. AuNPs of similar to 100-500 nm diameter formed during microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition, and these were overgrown by diamond. The size of the AuNPs under the diamond film can be increased by oxygen treatment of the surface prior to growth. AuNPs under the diamond film can be suppressed by growing a diamond nucleation layer at a lower temperature and in the presence of CO2 in a linear antenna diamond growth reactor.