Growth defects in diamond films

Growth defects in diamond films grown by plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD) were studied by high resolution electron microscopy. Several features of the microstructure were resolved and their importance to the growth of the diamond film was evaluated. The observations included various twin boundaries of the type ∑ = 3, as well as ∑ = 9, ∑ = 27, and ∑ = 81, which form by an interaction of lower order twins. These higher order boundaries are loci of intersection points of growing planes on two adjacent twins and can serve as an indicator for the local crystal growth direction. The central nucleation site for the growing planes in many cases can be traced back to a quintuplet twin point. A twin quintuplet has five re-entrant angles and thus serves as a preferred nucleation site for new planes as the crystal grows.