CHARACTERIZATION OF TEXTURED POLYCRYSTALLINE DIAMOND BY ELECTRON-SPIN-RESONANCE SPECTROSCOPY

Electron spin resonance (ESR) is shown to be a useful and versatile te chnique for the detection and characterization of preferred orientatio n effects in polycrystalline diamond films. A nitrogen related center known as P1 is used for this purpose. The ESR signal coming from this center is composed of a central fine and hyperfine satellite lines. It is found that crystallite disorientation causes a linewidth broadenin g of the satellite lines, which can thus be used to quantitatively cha racterize the diamond film texture. It is shown that the method is abl e to separate contributions of disorder induced by rotations of the cr ystallites around thr growth direction from other contributions. The g eneral conditions in which the method can be applied, and its applicab ility to other materials, are discussed. (C) 1997 American Institute o f Physics.