Highly Oriented Diamond Film Growth by Atomic Force Microscopy

Diamond thin films are grown with microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition method on silicon (100) substrates from methane/hydrogen gas mixture, and characterized with atomic force microscopy The results show that most of the diamond crystallites are highly oriented with the (100) planes parallel to the silicon substrate. Layer structures are found in the film, indicating a combination of layer-by-layer and island growth. Raman spectrum and x-ray diffraction also confirm the present results.