ON A CHARACTERISTIC MISORIENTATION STRUCTURE WITHIN (001) FACETS OF CVD-GROWN DIAMOND CRYSTALLITES - AN ANALYSIS BY OPTICAL MICROTOPOGRAPHY, INTERFEROMETRY, ELECTRON-DIFFRACTION AND CATHODOLUMINESCENCE

Certain crystallite populations in microwave plasma CVD-grown diamond films contain large octahedral grains oriented with [001] normal to th e film and topped by (001) facets several tens of micrometres in edge length. These facets show characteristic growth step patterns and rela ted characteristic cathodoluminescence patterns. Conflict between the interpretation of step patterns and the facet surface profiles determi ned interferometrically required a quadrantal division of (001) facets by low-angle boundaries for its explanation. Misorientation determina tion by electron channelling and electron backscatter diffraction tech niques confirmed this model; and partially polarized cathodoluminescen ce attributed to dislocations associated with the low-angle boundaries was observed. Occurrences of this misorientation texture in (001)-fac eted CVD-grown crystallites, without restriction to particular growth techniques, are to be expected.