AFM INVESTIGATION OF SILICON SUBSTRATES FOR CHEMICAL-VAPOR-DEPOSITIONOF DIAMOND FILMS

AFM has been used to study surface modifications on silicon (100) subs trates for CVD diamond deposition during bias pretreatment in a hot-fi lament reactor under various conditions. Both topographical images, fo rce-distance measurements and chemical etching with HF have been imple mented to obtain information on the processes involved. The results sh ow, that the observed roughening, which strongly depends on the gas ph ase composition, is caused by chemical etching of the surface dominate d by removal of elemental silicon via formation of silicon hydride.