A high gravity chemical vapor deposition apparatus

A high gravity centrifuge facility in which thin films can be produced, especially from gas phase, was developed. The centrifuge facility allows high gravity materials processing up to 100g (g denotes the terrestrial gravity acceleration). With a minor modification, not only thin films from gas phase but also bulk materials could be produced in the facility. For the first demonstrative attempt in this facility, diamond thin films were grown under high gravity conditions up to 100g by means of the direct current-plasma chemical vapor deposition method, in which diamond was deposited on a molybdenum substrate in a moderate pressure condition (27 kPa) of the gas flow of hydrogen-methane mixture (methane 1 vol %). The details of the facility are described, and the preliminary results on the high gravity diamond synthesis are presented.