Assessing polar and azimuthal correlations for an oriented mosaic of (001) diamond crystallites on (001) silicon

The heteroepitaxial growth of diamond films on (001) silicon by bias-enhanced, microwave-assisted chemical vapor deposition leads to a mosaic of highly oriented crystallites. The majority of crystallites adopt a "cube-on-cube" orientation (diamond{hkl} ∥sili-con{hkl}), but there are a variety of minor growth textures (including diamond (111)∥silicon(001), diamond(311)∥silicon(001), and diamond(220)∥silicon(001)). Within the diamond(001)∥silicon(001) domain, there is a distribution of crystallite orientations and concurrently heteroepitaxial relationships. The X-ray precession method has been employed here, together with the more widely adopted X-ray rocking curve technique, to assess quantitatively the nature and breadth of this distribution of orientations and its dependence on film thickness. In brief, the X-ray scattering from the mosaic of crystallites can be well approximated by simple gaussian functions, with misorientation angles of a few degrees both parallel (azimuthal) and normal (polar) to the surface of the silicon substrate. The dependence of these parameters on film thickness is, however, non-monotonic with minima near a diamond film thickness of 20 μm. © 1995.

Duke Scholars

Author Brian R. Stoner Electrical and Computer Engineering