Interaction of hydrogen, methane, ethylene, and cyclopentane with hot tungsten: Implications for the growth of diamond films

Modulated‐beam mass spectrometry and x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) have been used to investigate the interaction of CH4, C2H4, C5H10, and H2 with carburized and uncarburized tungsten. It is shown that significant evaporation of C1, C2, and C3 occurs for carburized tungsten at temperatures above 1900 °C. The temperature dependence of the carbon evaporation rate was found to be similar to the temperature dependence of the diamond film deposition rate observed in chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactors, similar to the temperature dependence for the carbon deposition rate observed in the present experiments, and similar to the expected evaporation rate of carbon from graphite and tungsten carbide. The desorption of hydrocarbon species (other than the incident gas) was not clearly observed under any conditions for methane or ethylene. In contrast, it is quite likely that cyclopentane decomposes at the surface to produce new species which are subsequently desorbed into the gas phase. The reaction of e...