Step growth in single crystal diamond grown by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition

Single crystal diamond films of varying quality are deposited using microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) apparatus. Unpolished natural diamond seeds are used as substrates in the temperature (Ts) range 850–1200 °C. The gas mixture of methane (CH4), hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2) is used for the deposition of diamond. The deposition pressure is varied in the range 90 to 150 Torr. The films are characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Raman spectroscopy techniques. The growth morphology of the films is found to be a sensitive function of the deposition parameters. The crystalline nature of the films change from polycrystalline to single crystal as we increase Ts and for a certain set of parameters the filamentary growth of the diamond crystals can be seen. The films are polycrystalline in the range of substrate temperatures 850–900 °C and oriented grains of diamond crystals are evident as the Ts increases. The single crystal diamond growth is observed to proceed via the step growth mechanism with the evidence of bunching of the steps. Our study explores evolution of the growth of single crystal diamond in a wide range of parameters.