Deposition of crackless freestanding diamond films on Mo substrates with Zr interlayer

The Mo substrate with Zr interlayer, namely composite substrate, was employed to solve the problem of crack formation in the freestanding diamond film deposition. Freestanding diamond films deposited on the composite substrates by the direct current arc plasma jet chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method were investigated with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman spectroscopy. In addition, the stress distribution during the large area freestanding diamond film deposition on the composite substrate was analyzed based on the finite element model ANSYS. The results reveal that Zr interlayer can be easily destroyed during the post-deposition cooling process, which is helpful for stress release and crack avoiding in diamond films.