Plasma, photon, and beam synthesis of diamond films and multilayered structures

Three major areas of fundamental research on diamond thin films have been explored during the last period, 1990--1991. A new microwave plasma enhanced laser ablation system has been designed and constructed. This system is currently being used to study the possibility of depositing diamond films on plastic surfaces. A mechanism for nucleating diamond films on single crystal copper surfaces has been proposed and detailed experiments have been carried out. Carbon clusters of C{sub 70} have been successfully used to nucleate diamond on non-diamond surfaces. This invention provides an alternative to using diamond -- grit polish as a nucleating agent