Homoepitaxial diamond (001) thin film studied by reflection high-energy electron diffraction, contact atomic force microscopy, and scanning tunnelingmicroscopy

A surface of the homoepitaxial diamond (001) thin film produced by microwav e plasma chemical vapor deposition was observed by reflection high-energy e lectron diffraction (RHEED), contact atomic force microscopy (contact-AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) on the same sample. It was checked by the RHEED observation that most areas of the sample surface had a 2 x 1 or 1 x 2 reconstructed structure, which indicates that most areas of the su rface were covered with hydrogen termination. By contact-AFM a pseudoperfec t surface with rare atomic-scale defects and steps was observed. By STM, on the other hand, a 2 x 1/1 x 2 double-domain structure was observed and the surface had many steps and defects. One should be careful because a contac t-AFM image does not ensure true atomic-resolution since the multitip effec t is dominant. (C) 2000 American Vacuum Society. [S0734-211X(00)12003-7].