Influence of CO2 addition on hydrogen and oxygen surface bonding onto nanostructured diamond thin film surfaces deposited at low substrate temperatures

Abstract In this work, hydrogen and oxygen chemisorption onto nanocrystalline diamond films deposited using CH 4 /H 2 /CO 2 precursor gas mixture by hot-filament chemical vapor deposition were investigated. The deposition was carried out with a specially designed substrate force-cooling setup at back substrate temperatures (T b ) of 200, 450 and 730 °C. For a similar gas phase activation and composition, high-resolution scanning electron microscopy shows that films deposited at T b  = 200 °C values display nanostructure morphology while the increase in T b results in an increase in grain size. Raman scattering, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy analyses revealed that addition of CO 2 influences the surface composition and bonding configuration of the diamond films. CO 2 addition in the gas mixture resulted in improving the quality of the films by reducing C C carbon during the growth process nonetheless it also substantially increases the C O bonds at the grain boundaries and on the diamond crystallites surfaces and reduces their C H concentration.