COLUMNAR GROWTH IN COMBUSTION DEPOSITED DIAMOND THIN-FILMS

The morphology of the nucleation and growth surfaces of oxygen-acetylene combustion deposited diamond thin films has been studied using scanning electron microscopy. The diameters of both nucleation cells and growth surface grains have been measured and analyzed statistically. The general shape of the distributions is found to change from nucleation to growth surface for each film. The frequency distribution of cells is generally normal, whereas, the distribution for the growth surface is found to be always lognormal. The change in shape of the distributions from normal for the nucleation surface to lognormal for the growth surface can be explained from a stochastic theory of growth.