Growth of twin-free heteroepitaxial diamond on Ir/YSZ/Si(111)

Journal Article · Mon Dec 15 00:00:00 EST 2008 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3019046· OSTI ID:21180051

Fischer, M; Brescia, R; Gsell, S; Schreck, M; Stritzker, B ^[1]; Brugger, T; Greber, T; Osterwalder, J ^[2]

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1. Institut fuer Physik, Universitaet Augsburg, D-86135 Augsburg (Germany)
2. Physik-Institut, Universitaet Zuerich, CH-8057 Zuerich (Switzerland)

Heteroepitaxial nucleation and growth of twin-free diamond on Ir(111) is reported. The bias enhanced nucleation (BEN) technique was applied in a microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition setup to induce diamond nucleation on the new multilayer stack Ir/YSZ/Si(111). We demonstrate that the gathering of the diamond nuclei in so-called 'domains', a pattern formation process unique for diamond nucleation on iridium, is also present on Ir(111). The 1-2 nm thick carbon layer deposited by BEN does not show any crystalline diamond structures in electron diffraction and high resolution lattice imaging microscopy. In contrast, x-ray photoelectron diffraction (XPD) measurements yield C 1s diffractograms with clear threefold symmetry. The main features are comparable to measurements on diamond (111) single crystal surfaces. The weaker fine structure in the XPD patterns of the BEN layers is attributed to some disorder due to the harsh ion bombardment. However, this ion bombardment did not induce any measurable amount of twinning as deduced from the threefold symmetry. After 3 h diamond growth, the signal due to twins in the x-ray diffraction pole figures is still below the noise level of {approx}1%. Negligible twinning and the low mosaic spread of 0.96 deg. (tilt) and 1.85 deg. (twist) indicate that these films mark a breakthrough toward heteroepitaxial diamond films with (111) orientation. They provide interesting growth substrates, e.g., for phosphorous doped diamond or for the formation of heterojunction devices by deposition of wurtzite-type wide band gap semiconductor materials.

• OSTI ID: 21180051
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 104, Issue 12; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3019046; (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION
CRYSTAL GROWTH
DIAMONDS
DOPED MATERIALS
ELECTRON DIFFRACTION
EPITAXY
FINE STRUCTURE
HETEROJUNCTIONS
ION BEAMS
IRIDIUM
MICROWAVE RADIATION
MONOCRYSTALS
NUCLEATION
PHOSPHORUS
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
THIN FILMS
X-RAY DIFFRACTION
X-RAY PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY
YTTRIUM OXIDES
ZIRCONIUM OXIDES