Epitaxial Growth of Diamond on Iridium

Abstract

Epitaxial growth of diamond on iridium thin films was performed by direct-current plasma chemical vapor deposition with ion irradiation pretreatment of the substrate. Pyramidal epitaxial diamond particles with a number density of ∼108 cm-2 were grown on the iridium film. The epitaxial relation is written as (100) diamond//(100) iridium and [001] diamond//[001] iridium. Tilting of the epitaxial relation, as occasionally observed for diamond on silicon or beta silicon carbide, is scarcely observed. Erosion,as observed for diamond on nickel substrates, is not observed. The effect of the ion irradiation of the substrate is discussed briefly.

Comparative electron diffraction study of the diamond nucleation layer on Ir(001)

“…The latter is available since the bias enhanced nucleation (BEN) process has been introduced [5]. With iridium Ohtsuka et al [6] found a material which provides an ideal substrate for heteroepitaxial diamond deposition ten years ago.…”

Heteroepitaxial growth of diamond

“…It is found that the Ir substrate surface after the ion irradiation is somewhat rough, and amorphous carbon is deposited by RHEED and X-ray spectroscopy (XPS) [25]. Furthermore, with a growth time of 30 minutes for the diamond, a flat continuous film as shown in Fig.…”

“…Although bulk Ir is a material with poor machinability, it can be epitaxially grown easily on a single-crystal substrate surface, such as MgO and SrTiO 3 . With the above background, the authors attempted growth of diamond on Ir{100) epitaxial thin film surfaces [25,44,53]. The details are given below.…”

“…Subsequently, research has centered around the use of single crystal substrate surfaces, such as Si [22], Ni [23], and P [24], and of b-SiC or metal epitaxial growth films as the substrate. Substrate materials for which a rather flat diamond epitaxial film is obtained include cBN, b-SiC, Pt, and Ir [25]. In this paper, the research trends of heteroepitaxial growth of diamond are explained centered around cBN, Si, b-SiC, and Ni.…”

Parameter window of diamond growth on GaN films by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition

“…This aspect of diamond has attracted considerable research interest in the last decades and a variety of substrates have been used for the textured growth of diamond films by CVD methods in the last decades. Promising substrates for oriented/epitaxial growth of diamond are iridium, nickel, cobalt, silicon and platinum [1][2][3][4][5]. GaN is another promising candidate, for use in power FETs, blue lasers and light emitting diodes.…”