High rate homoepitaxial growth of diamond by microwave plasma CVD with nitrogen addition

Recent progress on high rate homoepitaxial growth of diamond by microwave plasma CVD with nitrogen addition is presented. Effects of process parameters, such as the holder diameter and the reactor pressure, on the growth rate is summarized. Nitrogen incorporation in the high rate grown films measured by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) was 3.9-39 ppm, which is comparable to that of HPHT Ib diamond. As a possible way to grow large diamond, thick diamond growth by the repetition of high rate growth and three-dimensional enlargement in crystal size by the growth on the side {100} surface is introduced. The repetition of high rate growth has been successfully applied to the growth of thick diamond as large as 10 mm. The crystallinity of a 2.1 mm thick diamond characterized by rocking curve of high resolution X-ray diffraction was 10 arcsec, which is also comparable to that of HPHT Ib diamond. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.