A new phenomenon of diamond growth was observed. (001) oriented diamond layers can be grown on a (111) diamond face in a bias-assisted chemical vapor deposition process. The growth characteristics were investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. It was found that, due to the ion bombardment, the epitaxial growth of the (111) diamond face was interrupted and a secondary nucleation occurred. This ion-bombardment-induced secondary nucleation leads to the growth of a top layer with a nonparallel orientation relationship with the substrate. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.