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Thick, Adherent Diamond Films on AlN with Low Thermal Barrier Resistance.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

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Authors

Yuan, Chao 
Pomeroy, James W 

Abstract

The growth of >100-μm-thick diamond layers adherent on aluminum nitride with low thermal boundary resistance between diamond and AlN is presented in this work. The thermal barrier resistance was found to be in the range of 16 m2·K/GW, which is a large improvement on the current state-of-the-art. While thick films failed to adhere on untreated AlN films, AlN films treated with hydrogen/nitrogen plasma retained the thick diamond layers. Clear differences in ζ-potential measurement confirm surface modification due to hydrogen/nitrogen plasma treatment. An increase in non-diamond carbon in the initial layers of diamond grown on pretreated AlN is seen by Raman spectroscopy. The presence of non-diamond carbon has minimal effect on the thermal barrier resistance. The surfaces studied with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed a clear distinction between pretreated and untreated samples. The surface aluminum goes from a nitrogen-rich environment to an oxygen-rich environment after pretreatment. A clean interface between diamond and AlN is seen by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy.

Description

Keywords

aluminum nitride, diamond, diamond growth, diamond seeding, thermal barrier resistance

Journal Title

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1944-8244
1944-8252

Volume Title

11

Publisher

American Chemical Society (ACS)
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P00945X/1)
EPSRC (via Cardiff University) (513956)