SOME EFFECTS OF SILICON SUBSTRATE ROUGHNESS ON THE GROWTH OF HIGHLY ORIENTED (100) DIAMOND FILMS

Highly oriented, [100]-textured diamond films have been successfully grown on pristine silicon substrates using bias-enhanced nucleation techniques. This paper describes the characteristics of a highly oriented him deposited on the rough, as-cut, underside of a manufacturer-prepared silicon wafer. It was considered possible that the rougher, as-cut silicon surfaces would yield shorter incubation times for oriented diamond nucleation and that these nuclei would grow out into an oriented layer with improved registration to the underlying silicon surface. Standard characterization techniques have been used to study diamond films grown on as-cut silicon surfaces. SEM images show that the undulating topography of the as-cut substrate is retained during the early stages of diamond growth: however, films of similar smoothness to those grown on the polished side can be achieved by extending the growth times on the roughened surface. Raman full width at half-maximum at 1332 cm(-1) and X-ray diffraction data also indicate that films of equal quality can be grown on either side of a commercially available silicon wafer.