Fabrication of heteroepitaxial diamond thin films on Ir(001)/MgO(001) substrates using antenna-edge-type microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition

Abstract Diamond heteroepitaxial thin films were successfully synthesized on high-quality Ir(001)/MgO(001) substrates. In bias-enhanced nucleation, antenna-edge-type microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) was used. Subsequently, the 〈001〉 selective and smoothing growth processes were conducted by conventional MPCVD. Reconstructed (2×1) structure patterns have been observed by reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED), which indicated that the surface of the diamond film is very smooth. The mean roughness is less than 2 nm in a 10-μm 2 area, as revealed by atomic force microscopy observations.