Atmospheric-Pressure Microwave Plasma Torch for CVD Technology of Diamond Synthesis

An electrodeless microwave jet plasma source is considered, and its various applications in the technology of chemical vapor deposition of diamond films and dimension increasing of small diamond single crystals synthesized at high pressures and temperatures are discussed. The plasma jet is ignited in an atmospheric-pressure gas (argon) flow with hydrogen and methane additives. The operation of the microwave jet reactor is described, and the plasma characteristics measured using emission spectroscopy are presented. The brightly glowing atmospheric-pressure plasma jet is ignited and stably burns at a microwave power of 1 kW supplied from a microwave oven magnetron. The specific microwave power density absorbed by the compact plasma jet (10(4) W/cm(3)) is comparable with that absorbed by a dc arc. The growth rate of the polycrystalline diamond layer amounts to 40 mu m/h. The process of film deposition on the substrate can be controlled by scanning the substrate surface with the jet.