CHARACTERIZATION OF STRUCTURE AND DEFECTS IN TEXTURED DIAMOND FILMS BY ION CHANNELING

Polycrystalline diamond (PCD) films were deposited by microwave-plasma -assisted chemical vapour deposition (CVD) under various growth condit ions. The PCD films under investigation exhibit a [100] texture and th e surface is formed by almost coplanar {100) faces. To characterize th e structure and morphology of the PCD films, the ion channelling techn ique was employed. The angular dependence of backscattered megaelectro nvolt protons around the texture axis of the PCD films has been invest igated. Two dominant dechannelling contributions, i.e. the shape of th e distribution of the diamond crystallite orientation and the density of scattering centres, could separately be deduced by comparing the po lycrystalline and single-crystal angular yields. The growth parameter determined, i.e. alpha = 3 1/2 x V100/V111 and the spread of the orien tational distribution are in agreement with data obtained by other str uctural characterization techniques. The density of scattering centres obtained in the PCD films exhibits a strong dependence on the relativ e amount of {111} facets and is almost proportional to the ratio of th e {111} growth sectors to the {100} growth sectors at the film surface .