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AssigneeKobe Steel Europe Limited
InventorsDavid Buhaenko, Peter John Ellis, Paul Southworth, Carolyn Elizabeth Beer
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A structure is disclosed for growing semiconductor surfaces. A substrate such as a single crystal silicon substrate is treated by electrical biasing in the presence of a carbon-containing plasma to cause nucleation of the surface. By direct observation using atomic force microscopy (AFM), a nucleated surface consisting of a thin film of mutually parallel, quadrilateral carbon-containing platelets was seen to develop on the substrate. An optimum nucleated surface was determined to be substantially covered with such platelets whose slope relative to the substrate was less than 5.degree.. Such a surface can serve as a template for growing semiconductor films, particularly of diamond, of well defined structure.
A structure which comprises a single crystal substrate capable of forming a binary carbide, said substrate having a surface which has been nucleated for subsequent growth of an oriented diamond layer, the nucleated surface comprising a thin film of quadrilateral carbide containing platelets which are substantially coplanar, having a maximum slope of 5.degree. at the top surface relative to the surface of the substrate, the platelets having a maximum dimension of 0.5 .mu.m.
A process for producing a substrate for use as a template for growing oriented carbon-containing films which comprises conditioning the surface of a single crystal substrate by exposing said surface to a carbon-containing plasma and subjecting the preconditioned surface to an electrical bias in the presence of a carbon-containing plasma under conditions such as to cause the formation of a nucleated surface of mutually, substantially coplanar quadrilateral carbide-containing platelets, said platelets having a maximum slope of 5.degree. at the top surface relative to the surface of the substrate and having a maximum dimension of 0.5 .mu.m.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.