Effects of local facet and lattice damage on nucleation of diamond grown by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

Diamond deposition on an anisotropic etched Si and ion implanted Si surfaces have been examined here for the first time. Local facets on an anisotropic etched surface shows no nucleation of diamond. Synthetic diamond, in contrast, has been able to nucleate on an As+ or Si+ ion implanted Si substrate without diamond abrasive pretreatment. Selective deposition of diamond occurs only for low dose ion implantation, 100 keV 1014 cm−2, but not for high dose ion implantation, 100 KeV 1016 cm−2. Strain is proposed as the main reason for nucleation of diamond on the ion implanted Si substrates.