Laser plasma production of amorphic diamond films

Reported is the use of a unique laser plasma source able to deposit thin films of amorphic diamond at practical rates of growth. The beam from a pulsed Nd:Yag laser is focused at very high power densities of 1012W/cm2 onto graphite feedstock in a ultrahigh vacuum environment. The resulting plasma ejects carbon ions able to migrate to the plane of deposition. In this way diamond-like coating have been applied to silicon, gold, germanium, glass, copper, InAs, and plastic. On these substrates electrical resistivity is high and the materials seem to fall into the same class of dehydrogenated materials as are traditionally produced by the ion beam methods. However, growth rates are much higher with this laser plasma source, routinely reaching 0.5μm/hr. No seeding or heating of the substrate is needed and substrate temperatures seem to remain at ambient room values during processing