Mechanism for diamond nucleation and growth on single crystal copper surfaces implanted with carbon

The nucleation and growth of diamond crystals on single-crystal copper surfaces implanted with carbon ions has been studied. Microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition was used for diamond growth. The single-crystal copper substrates were implanted either at room temperature or at elevated temperature (∼820 °C) with carbon ions prior to diamond nucleation. This procedure leads to the formation of a graphite film on the copper surface which greatly enhances diamond crystallite nucleation. From our study we construct a simple lattice model for diamond growth on graphite as 〈111〉diamond parallel to 〈0001〉graphite and 〈110〉diamond parallel to 〈112̄0〉graphite.