High quality textured growth of oriented diamond thin films on Si (100) ina hot filament-CVD system

High quality textured and oriented diamond (100) films were grown in a two step process on Si (100). Bias-enhanced nucleation and textured growth by m icrowave CVD was followed by hot filament deposition without the addition o f nitrogen to yield a smooth (100) oriented surface with defect free las ju dged by SEM) areas of up to 200 x 200 mu m(2) and no detectable (111) facet s. Low energy electron diffraction confirmed the high degree of lateral ord ering which is much improved compared with oriented textured diamond grown by conventional methods on Si (100). Raman measurements confirm the excelle nt quality of these films with no detectable graphitic or amorphous carbon phase and a vanishing background due to nitrogen related photoluminescence. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.