Method for eliminating surface defects of single crystal diamond seed crystal by utilizing inductive coupling plasma technology
Technical Field
The invention relates to a method for eliminating defects of a single crystal diamond seed crystal.
Background
In recent years, large-size single crystal diamond and quasi-single crystal diamond become basic, key and even unique material solutions in high-tech fields such as precision machining, high-frequency communication, aerospace, advanced technology and the like due to extremely high hardness, highest thermal conductivity, extremely wide electromagnetic transmission frequency range and excellent anti-irradiation capability and corrosion resistance. The traditional artificial single crystal diamond adopts a high temperature High Pressure (HPHT) method, and the diamond prepared by the method has more impurities, higher defect density, relatively poorer quality and smaller size, and is far different from the requirements of related applications, so that the HPHT diamond has narrower application range, is positioned at the downstream in the industry, has low profit and low competitiveness.
Compared with the HPHT method, the microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) method is one of the best methods for preparing large-size single-crystal diamond which is generally accepted at present, and the single-crystal diamond prepared by the method has the advantages of low impurity concentration, wide transmission waveband, low defect density, larger size, controllable growth rate and the like, and is considered to be the most promising method for mass production of artificial diamond in the future.
When the MPCVD method is used for growing CVD diamond, a single-crystal HPHT or natural diamond piece is mostly used as a seed crystal for growing. The single crystal diamond seed crystal (hereinafter referred to as seed crystal) needs to be processed into a wafer of a specific form before growth, so that high-quality single crystal diamond epitaxial growth can be performed. Because diamond has extremely high hardness and wear resistance, the traditional mechanical method can hardly carry out processing treatment, so high-power laser is required to be adopted to cut and process the diamond raw stone into a specific shape. Due to the high thermal action of the laser, severe graphitization and amorphous phase are generated on the cut surface after laser processing, and a single crystal cannot necessarily be grown on such a surface, so that a polishing treatment must be accompanied. Mechanical polishing can remove the graphite and amorphous phase layers generated by laser processing to a great extent, but cannot eliminate the graphite and amorphous phase layers by one hundred percent, so that a great number of defects and dislocations exist on the surface of the processed seed crystal. Epitaxial growth is carried out on the seed crystal rich in defects, grown crystal lattices can continue and amplify the original defects, so that the grown CVD diamond contains a large number of defects, the quality of the material is seriously deteriorated, even a single crystal phase can not grow, and the reliability of material preparation and the yield of products are influenced.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention provides a method for eliminating the surface defects of single crystal diamond seed crystals by using an inductively coupled plasma technology, aiming at solving the problem that the quality of epitaxially grown diamond is influenced by the enrichment of surface defects on the surface of the seed crystals due to imperfect laser processing and polishing in the existing MPCVD growth.
A method for eliminating the surface defects of the monocrystalline diamond seed crystal by utilizing the inductive coupling plasma technology is carried out according to the following steps:
firstly, cleaning monocrystalline diamond seed crystals:
under the condition that the ultrasonic power is 200W-800W, sequentially placing a plurality of monocrystalline diamond seed crystals in acetone, deionized water and absolute ethyl alcohol, respectively cleaning for 5 min-30 min, and then drying in a vacuum drying oven at the temperature of 40 ℃ to 80 ℃ to obtain clean seed crystals;
secondly, preparing a shielding shelter:
shielding the part which is not required to be processed on the clean seed crystal by using an oxide coating, and leaving the surface defect part exposed to obtain the seed crystal shielded and masked;
thirdly, placing a sample:
placing a plurality of seed crystals of the shielding shelter on a cabin sample tray of the inductively coupled plasma equipment in order, wherein the distance between the seed crystals of each shielding shelter is 1-50 mm;
fourthly, closing the cabin:
the sample platform is moved into the cabin, and the cabin door of the cabin body is closed;
fifthly, vacuumizing:
after closing the cabin, vacuumizing the cabin body to ensure that the vacuum degree in the cabin body reaches 1.0 × 10-7mbar~1.0×10- 6mbar;
Sixthly, inductively coupled plasma treatment:
①, starting a program, introducing argon, setting the flow of the argon to be 1 sccm-50 sccm, enabling the air pressure of the cabin body to be 2 Pa-20 Pa, starting an excitation power supply, and activating the inductively coupled plasma;
②, adjusting the air pressure of the cabin body to 2 Pa-50 Pa, and adjusting the incident power of the plasma to 10W-1000W, so that the inductively coupled plasma reaches a preheating state;
③, controlling the seed crystal temperature of the shelter to be 300-1000K;
④, opening an oxidizing gas valve, introducing oxidizing gas, setting the flow rate of the oxidizing gas to be 1 sccm-50 sccm, keeping the pressure in the chamber to be 2 Pa-50 Pa, and after the oxidizing gas and the argon plasma atmosphere are uniformly mixed, adjusting the incident power of the plasma to be 200W-2000W and the polarization power to be 200W-2000W, so that the inductively coupled plasma reaches a working state;
the oxidizing gas is oxygen or chlorine;
⑤, processing for 1h to 50h under the conditions that the argon flow is 1sccm to 50sccm, the oxidizing gas flow is 1sccm to 50sccm, the pressure in the cabin is 2Pa to 50Pa, the plasma incident power is 200W to 2000W, the polarization power is 200W to 2000W, and the seed crystal temperature of the shielding shelter is 300K to 1000K;
⑥, closing the oxidizing gas valve and stopping introducing the oxidizing gas;
⑦, keeping the argon flow at 1 sccm-50 sccm, reducing the plasma incident power and the polarization power at a speed of 10W/min-200W/min until the plasma incident power and the polarization power are respectively reduced to be below 100W, and cooling the treated seed crystal to room temperature;
⑧, turning off the power supply, and extinguishing the glow of plasma;
⑨, stopping introducing the argon gas, and vacuumizing the cabin;
⑩, opening the chamber and taking out the sample, thus completing the method for eliminating the surface defects of the single crystal diamond seed crystal by using the inductively coupled plasma technology.
The invention has the beneficial effects that:
1. the method treats the surface of the seed crystal through the bombardment effect of the inductively coupled plasma, and solves the problems that effective mechanical polishing is difficult to carry out due to the extremely high hardness of diamond, and even defects are further introduced in the polishing;
2. the defective parts on the surface of the seed crystal are selectively exposed and eliminated by the plasma bombardment treatment through the oxide coating serving as a shielding mask;
3. the uniformity of the inductively coupled plasma can reach 1 nanometer, so that the high uniformity of the treated part is ensured;
4. the treated seed crystal has no defect and thus greatly raised crystal quality and use reliability.
The invention is used for a method for eliminating the surface defects of the single crystal diamond seed crystal by utilizing the inductive coupling plasma technology.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a photograph of a single crystal diamond seed prior to removal of surface defects;
FIG. 2 is a photograph of a single crystal diamond seed crystal with surface defects removed prepared in accordance with example one;
FIG. 3 is a photograph of a single crystal diamond seed without annihilating surface defects after CVD diamond growth;
FIG. 4 is a photograph of the single crystal diamond seed crystal with the surface defects removed after CVD diamond growth prepared in the first example;
FIG. 5 is a Raman spectrum of a single crystal diamond seed crystal without surface defects removed 1 and a single crystal diamond seed crystal with surface defects removed prepared in example one;
fig. 6 is an atomic force microscope test chart of the single crystal diamond seed crystal with the surface defects removed prepared in the first example.
Detailed Description
The technical solution of the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments listed below, and includes any combination of the specific embodiments.
The first embodiment is as follows: the method for eliminating the surface defects of the single crystal diamond seed crystal by using the inductively coupled plasma technology is carried out according to the following steps:
firstly, cleaning monocrystalline diamond seed crystals:
under the condition that the ultrasonic power is 200W-800W, sequentially placing a plurality of monocrystalline diamond seed crystals in acetone, deionized water and absolute ethyl alcohol, respectively cleaning for 5 min-30 min, and then drying in a vacuum drying oven at the temperature of 40 ℃ to 80 ℃ to obtain clean seed crystals;
secondly, preparing a shielding shelter:
shielding the part which is not required to be processed on the clean seed crystal by using an oxide coating, and leaving the surface defect part exposed to obtain the seed crystal shielded and masked;
thirdly, placing a sample:
placing a plurality of seed crystals of the shielding shelter on a cabin sample tray of the inductively coupled plasma equipment in order, wherein the distance between the seed crystals of each shielding shelter is 1-50 mm;
fourthly, closing the cabin:
the sample platform is moved into the cabin, and the cabin door of the cabin body is closed;
fifthly, vacuumizing:
after closing the cabin, vacuumizing the cabin body to ensure that the vacuum degree in the cabin body reaches 1.0 × 10-7mbar~1.0×10- 6mbar;
Sixthly, inductively coupled plasma treatment:
①, starting a program, introducing argon, setting the flow of the argon to be 1 sccm-50 sccm, enabling the air pressure of the cabin body to be 2 Pa-20 Pa, starting an excitation power supply, and activating the inductively coupled plasma;
②, adjusting the air pressure of the cabin body to 2 Pa-50 Pa, and adjusting the incident power of the plasma to 10W-1000W, so that the inductively coupled plasma reaches a preheating state;
③, controlling the seed crystal temperature of the shelter to be 300-1000K;
④, opening an oxidizing gas valve, introducing oxidizing gas, setting the flow rate of the oxidizing gas to be 1 sccm-50 sccm, keeping the pressure in the chamber to be 2 Pa-50 Pa, and after the oxidizing gas and the argon plasma atmosphere are uniformly mixed, adjusting the incident power of the plasma to be 200W-2000W and the polarization power to be 200W-2000W, so that the inductively coupled plasma reaches a working state;
the oxidizing gas is oxygen or chlorine;
⑤, processing for 1h to 50h under the conditions that the argon flow is 1sccm to 50sccm, the oxidizing gas flow is 1sccm to 50sccm, the pressure in the cabin is 2Pa to 50Pa, the plasma incident power is 200W to 2000W, the polarization power is 200W to 2000W, and the seed crystal temperature of the shielding shelter is 300K to 1000K;
⑥, closing the oxidizing gas valve and stopping introducing the oxidizing gas;
⑦, keeping the argon flow at 1 sccm-50 sccm, reducing the plasma incident power and the polarization power at a speed of 10W/min-200W/min until the plasma incident power and the polarization power are respectively reduced to be below 100W, and cooling the treated seed crystal to room temperature;
⑧, turning off the power supply, and extinguishing the glow of plasma;
⑨, stopping introducing the argon gas, and vacuumizing the cabin;
⑩, opening the chamber and taking out the sample, thus completing the method for eliminating the surface defects of the single crystal diamond seed crystal by using the inductively coupled plasma technology.
In the second step of the embodiment, the oxide coating is used for shielding the parts of the seed crystals which do not need to be treated, only the parts which need to be treated are left to be exposed, and the specific treatment part is determined according to the distribution condition of the defects on the surfaces of the diamonds.
The beneficial effects of the embodiment are as follows: 1. the embodiment treats the surface of the seed crystal through the bombardment effect of the inductively coupled plasma, and solves the problems that effective mechanical polishing is difficult to carry out due to the extremely high hardness of diamond, and even defects are further introduced in the polishing;
2. the defective parts on the surface of the seed crystal are selectively exposed and eliminated by the plasma bombardment treatment through the oxide coating serving as a shielding mask;
3. the uniformity of the inductively coupled plasma can reach 1 nanometer, so that the high uniformity of the treated part is ensured;
4. the treated seed crystal has no defect and thus greatly raised crystal quality and use reliability.
The second embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the procedure is started in step six ①, argon gas is introduced, the flow rate of the argon gas is set to be 10sccm to 50sccm, the pressure of the chamber is set to be 10Pa to 20Pa, the excitation power supply is started, and the inductively coupled plasma is activated.
Third embodiment, the difference between this embodiment and the first or second embodiment is that the incident power of the plasma is adjusted to 200W-1000W in the sixth ②.
Fourth embodiment, the difference between this embodiment and the first to third embodiments is that the seed temperature of the shielding shelter is controlled to 300K to 800K in the sixth ③ step.
Fifth embodiment is different from the first to fourth embodiments in that, in the sixth ④, when the oxidizing gas is oxygen, the flow rate of the oxidizing gas is set to 10sccm to 50sccm, the pressure in the chamber is maintained to 2Pa to 50Pa, and after the oxidizing gas and the plasma atmosphere of argon gas are uniformly mixed, the plasma incident power is adjusted to 1000W to 2000W and the polarization power is adjusted to 1000W to 2000W.
Sixth embodiment a sixth embodiment is different from the first to fifth embodiments in that in the sixth ④, when the oxidizing gas is chlorine gas, the flow rate of the oxidizing gas is set to 10sccm to 50sccm, the pressure in the chamber is maintained to 2Pa to 50Pa, and after the oxidizing gas and the plasma atmosphere of argon gas are uniformly mixed, the plasma incident power is adjusted to 800W to 2000W and the polarization power is adjusted to 800W to 2000W.
A seventh embodiment is different from the first to sixth embodiments in that the seed crystal is treated for 10h to 50h in the sixth ⑤ under the conditions that the argon flow rate is 1sccm to 50sccm, the oxidizing gas flow rate is 10sccm to 50sccm, the pressure in the chamber is 2Pa to 50Pa, the plasma incident power is 1000W to 2000W, the polarization power is 1000W to 2000W, and the seed crystal temperature of the shielding mask is 300K to 800K.
Eighth embodiment mode, which is different from the first to seventh embodiment modes, in the sixth embodiment mode ⑤, the seed crystal is treated for 10h to 50h under the conditions that the argon flow rate is 1sccm to 50sccm, the oxidizing gas flow rate is 10sccm to 50sccm, the pressure in the chamber is 2Pa to 50Pa, the plasma incident power is 800W to 2000W, the polarization power is 800W to 2000W, and the seed crystal temperature of the shielding mask is 300K to 800K.
The ninth embodiment is different from the first to eighth embodiments in that the flow rate of argon gas is maintained at 10sccm to 50sccm in step six ⑦, the incident power and the polarization power of the plasma are reduced at a rate of 10W/min to 100W/min until the incident power and the polarization power of the plasma are reduced to less than 100W, respectively, and the temperature of the treated seed crystal is reduced to room temperature.
The detailed implementation mode is ten: the present embodiment differs from one of the first to ninth embodiments in that: the oxide coating in the second step is SiO2. The other points are the same as those in the first to ninth embodiments.
The following examples were used to demonstrate the beneficial effects of the present invention:
the first embodiment is as follows:
a method for eliminating the surface defects of the monocrystalline diamond seed crystal by utilizing the inductive coupling plasma technology is carried out according to the following steps:
firstly, cleaning monocrystalline diamond seed crystals:
sequentially placing a plurality of monocrystalline diamond seed crystals in acetone, deionized water and absolute ethyl alcohol under the condition that the ultrasonic power is 300W, respectively cleaning for 10min, and then drying in a vacuum drying oven at the temperature of 60 ℃ to obtain clean seed crystals;
secondly, preparing a shielding shelter:
by SiO2The oxide coating shields the part which is not required to be processed on the clean seed crystal, and the part with surface defects is left to be exposed to obtain the seed crystal shielded;
thirdly, placing a sample:
placing a plurality of seed crystals of the shielding shelter on a cabin sample tray of the inductively coupled plasma equipment in order, wherein the distance between the seed crystals of each shielding shelter is 30 mm;
fourthly, closing the cabin:
the sample platform is moved into the cabin, and the cabin door of the cabin body is closed;
fifthly, vacuumizing:
after closing the cabin, vacuumizing the cabin body to ensure that the vacuum degree in the cabin body reaches 5.0 × 10-7mbar;
Sixthly, inductively coupled plasma treatment:
①, starting a program, introducing argon, setting the flow of the argon to be 10sccm, enabling the air pressure of the cabin body to be 10Pa, starting an excitation power supply, and activating the inductively coupled plasma;
②, adjusting the air pressure of the cabin to 10Pa, and adjusting the incident power of the plasma to 200W, so that the inductively coupled plasma reaches a preheating state;
③, controlling the seed crystal temperature of the shelter to be 800K;
④, opening an oxidizing gas valve, introducing oxidizing gas, setting the flow rate of the oxidizing gas to be 10sccm, keeping the pressure in the chamber to be 10Pa, and after the oxidizing gas and the argon plasma atmosphere are uniformly mixed, adjusting the incident power of the plasma to be 1000W and the polarization power to be 1000W, so that the inductively coupled plasma reaches a working state;
the oxidizing gas is oxygen;
⑤, processing for 10h under the conditions that the argon flow is 10sccm, the oxidizing gas flow is 10sccm, the pressure in the cabin is 10Pa, the plasma incident power is 1000W, the polarization power is 1000W and the seed crystal temperature of the shielding shelter is 800K;
⑥, closing the oxidizing gas valve and stopping introducing the oxidizing gas;
⑦, keeping the argon flow at 10sccm, reducing the plasma incident power and the polarization power at a speed of 100W/min until the plasma incident power and the polarization power are respectively reduced to be below 100W, and cooling the treated seed crystal to room temperature;
⑧, turning off the power supply, and extinguishing the glow of plasma;
⑨, stopping introducing the argon gas, and vacuumizing the cabin;
⑩, opening the chamber and taking out the sample to obtain the single crystal diamond seed crystal for eliminating the surface defect, namely completing the method for eliminating the surface defect of the single crystal diamond seed crystal by using the inductive coupling plasma technology.
FIG. 1 is a photograph of a single crystal diamond seed prior to removal of surface defects; as can be seen, the surface is dark and uneven, indicating defects caused by laser cutting;
FIG. 2 is a photograph of a single crystal diamond seed crystal with surface defects removed prepared in accordance with example one; as can be seen, the surface is white and even, indicating that the defect has been eliminated;
FIG. 3 is a photograph of a single crystal diamond seed without annihilating surface defects after CVD diamond growth; as can be seen, the surface is significantly polycrystallized;
FIG. 4 is a photograph of the single crystal diamond seed crystal with the surface defects removed after CVD diamond growth prepared in the first example; as can be seen from the figure, the surface is bright and smooth, and is a typical single crystal growth morphology.
Fig. 5 is a raman spectrum, 1 is a single crystal diamond seed crystal without surface defects removed, and 2 is a single crystal diamond seed crystal with surface defects removed prepared in example one. As can be seen from the figure, after the defect was eliminated, the grown layer was a high-quality single crystal, and polycrystalline and amorphous characteristic peaks appeared without eliminating the defect.
FIG. 6 is an atomic force microscope test chart of the single crystal diamond seed crystal with the surface defects removed prepared in the first example, with a test range of 10 μm and a roughness measurement of 1.4nm, showing that the uniformity after treatment is 1 nm.
According to the embodiment, the exposed part with the defect on the surface of the seed crystal is removed through the bombardment treatment effect of the inductively coupled plasma, so that the quality and the reliability of the crystal are improved, the crystal has more excellent material properties and application values, and the defect-free high-quality monocrystalline diamond epitaxial layer can be more easily grown by removing the defect seed crystal through the inductively coupled plasma according to the appearance after CVD growth and the Raman spectrum result.