Design of novel plasma reactor for diamond film deposition

Development of microwave plasma reactors is a key factor for improving microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) techniques for producing high quality diamond films. In this paper, a new microwave plasma reactor operated at 2.45 GHz was proposed on the basis of numerical simulation. The Finite Element Method (FEM) was used to optimize the geometry, and the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method was employed to calculate the electric field and the plasma density. The proposed reactor works mainly at the TM₀₂₁ mode, and it has an excellent power handing capability. Preliminary experiment showed that high density hemispherical plasma could be ignited inside the reactor, and uniform diamond film could be deposited on substrates at high input microwave power.