Controlling the Diamond Film Morphology by Low-Energy Electron Bombardment

We studied the effects of low-energy electron bombardment during diamond growth over the film crystalline quality and morphology. The film growth was monitored via the effective extinction coefficient (k) at 1.96 eV with in situ ellipsometry, in order to determine the developmental stage of the film in real time. Taking advantage of this in situ monitoring, we triggered the electron bombardment over the growing surface at different growth stages and studied the corresponding induced changes in film morphology and crystalline quality. Ex situ Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were also employed to evaluate the crystalline quality and the morphology of the grown films, respectively. We found that electron bombardment can be used to control the surface morphology of the films (triangular, pyramidal, square, amorphous). The results also indicate that applying the electron bombardment over the diamond film during the whole time of growth is detrimental to its crystalline quality and favors the formation of non-sp3 carbon. However, when the electron bombardment is triggered just after high quality scattered diamond crystallites have formed, the resulting film is of similar quality as those grown without bombardment. Therefore, properly chosen and triggered electron bombardment during diamond growth by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) can be used to control the film morphology while maintaining the film crystalline quality.