HOMO-EPITAXIAL DIAMOND FILM GROWTH ON ION-IMPLANTED DIAMOND SUBSTRATES

The effect of strain and defects, within a diamond substrate, on the g rowth of homo-epitaxial CVD diamond has been investigated. The strateg y employed is to create laterally confined regions of strain in the su bstrates by focused MeV implantation of light ions. Raman microscopy h as been employed to obtain spatially resolved maps of the strain in th ese implanted regions; A homo-epitaxial CVD diamond film was grown on top of both the implanted and unimplanted regions of the substrate. Ra man analysis of the film grown on top of the implanted region revealed it to be under slightly tensile strain, compared with that grown on t he unimplanted diamond substrate. The film deposited on the implanted portion of the diamond showed a lower fluorescence background. The res ults indicate that defects and strain in the diamond substrate can eff ect the nature of homo-epitaxial diamond growth.