STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF DIAMOND FILMS GROWN EPITAXIALLY ON SILICON

Diamond films have been deposited on Si(001) and Si(111) substrates. Using a bias pretreatment process resulted in a high portion of epitaxially aligned diamond nuclei on both substrates. Scanning electron microscopy was used to characterize the films qualitatively. X-ray diffraction texture measurements yielded a preferential orientation of the diamond crystallites, which was diamond(001)[110] parallel-to Si(001)[110] and diamond(111)[110BAR] parallel-to Si(111)[110BAR] for Si(001) and Si(111) respectively. Besides the poles of these epitaxially aligned crystals we observe further maxima in the pole figures which we attribute to twins. The latter was confirmed by direct observation in a scanning electron microscope. Rocking curves show a full width at half-maximum of about 12-degrees for diamond on Si(001) and 8-degrees for diamond on Si(111) which gives the amount of polar misalignment. Azimuthal misalignments as deduced from the pole figures are nearly the same size.