STM NANOMETRIC STUDY OF THE INITIAL-STAGES OF DIAMOND FILM GROWTH - QUANTITATIVE MEASUREMENT OF (111) AND (100) SURFACE-ROUGHNESS

The morphology of diamond films grown on silicon substrates by the chemical vapor deposition method has been studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). STM images reveal isolated crystals grown on a faceted granular structure for 15 min deposition time. The faceted structure could be the initial film morphology leading to further diamond growth. After 30 min, a continuous film has already formed, with an improved crystalline quality. The film displays predominantly {111} and {100} faces. High-resolution images show that the {111} surface is rougher than the {100} one from the early stages of growth, supporting {100} surface reconstruction during the growth process. A step morphology is also found for the {100) faces.