GROWTH AND MORPHOLOGICAL-STUDIES OF (100) TEXTURED DIAMOND THIN-FILMSBY MICROWAVE PLASMA-ENHANCED CHEMICAL-VAPOR-DEPOSITION

Textured (100) diamond films have been successfully grown using the pl asma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique and characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction, The thickness of such a (100)-or iented diamond film can be as thin as 4 mu m, and the just-emerged tra nsitional layer is found to be only 1.5 mu m, which is very thin compa red with the computer simulation value of 700d(0), where d(0) is the a verage distance between the nuclei. A systematic study of various para meters in the carburization and bias steps on the growth of textured ( 100) diamond films and the subsequent change of surface morphology has been investigated. Experimental results show that these two pre-growt h steps seem to ease the growth of textured (100) diamond films and th ey should be optimized for a set of growth conditions. It is suggested that varying these parameters in the pre-growth steps may cause a cha nge of microstructure, alignment of nuclei, and defect states in the d iamond-like layer, resulting in the morphological change of textured ( 100) diamond films.