Nucleation of Nano-Diamond Films for X-Ray Mask Substrates

Diamond films are essential to next generation X-ray lithography mask. The affection of different process parameter to nucleation density and nucleation quality were investigated by controlling substrate-temperature, changing growth-time and CH4 concentration etc., and some high-density nucleation samples were obtainted. Mean time, pregrowth process after nucleation of diamond films was improved and dominant growth of major island was restrained effectively. The results show that the nucleation process can be optimized as 14% of CH4 concentration, 700℃ of substrate-temperature, 14min of nucleation. The optical properties and stress distribution of free-standing diamond membranes can be improved greatly.