Homoepitaxial growth and hydrogen incorporation on the chemical vapor deposited (111) diamond

A systematic study of the effect of growth conditions (temperature, microwave power, and pressure! on the hydrogen incorporation and growth rate of (111) homoepitaxial diamond synthesized by microwave plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition is carried out by secondary ion mass spectrometry. Significant quantities of hydrogen incorporation in the (111) homoepitaxial diamond are detected for the growth conditions employed. Hydrogen concentration and growth rate are found to increase with an increase in the substrate temperatures. The increase of microwave power decreases the hydrogen incorporation and increases the growth rate. The effect of pressure rise is similar to that of microwave power. However, the effect of pressure rise over 50 Torr on hydrogen incorporation and growth rate is small. The decrease of hydrogen incorporation can be explained by the suppression of defects in the growing film by atomic hydrogen in the gas phase. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)03515-X].