Analysis of diamond growth in subatmospheric dc plasma-gun reactors

Abstract

The growth of diamond in a subatmospheric dc‐arc plasma‐jet reactor has been studied theoretically. Full transport equations for this geometry, including gas‐phase and surface chemistry, have been solved numerically. The surface‐reaction mechanism includes pathways for the incorporation of CH₃, C₂H₂, and C from the gas phase, as well as growth of graphite. The surface mechanism includes full reversibility for all reactions, based on estimates of the thermochemistry. Results are presented for degrees of dissociation of H₂ in the plasma gun ranging from 2.6% to 90%, and inlet levels of CH₄ spanning 0.1–5.0 mol %. It is seen that CH₃ is the predominant growth species when there is little H₂ dissociation within the plasma gun, but C becomes the dominant species at higher dissociation levels. The third growth species, C₂H₂, does not play a role in diamond growth under these conditions when there is less than 1% CH₄ in the feed; but, at higher CH₄ levels both C and CH₃ addition rates drop to 50 times greater than C₂H₂.