OXY-ACETYLENE FLAME CHEMICAL-VAPOR-DEPOSITION OF DIAMOND FILMS - PARTI - THE INFLUENCE OF DEPOSITION PARAMETERS ON DIAMOND MORPHOLOGY

In this work we present an extended characterisation of polycrystallin e diamond films grown by the acetylene flame chemical vapour depositio n (CVD) method. In the first part, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is used to study the influence of process parameters on diamond crysta l morphology. In the second part, various surface analysis techniques are used to study the effects of process parameters on diamond composi tion and their relation to morphology. Process parameters, such as the substrate temperature and molar ratio between oxygen and acetylene, a re seen to have a great influence on the morphology of the films. With an appropriate choice of parameters it is possible to obtain areas of polycrystalline diamond films with good crystallinity acid homogeneou s crystal size, which could permit the use of flame CVD as a suitable diamond deposition technique for small area applications. (C) 1998 Els evier Science S.A. All rights reserved.