Effect of nitrogen on the growth of diamond films

The incorporation of nitrogen in diamond films and its effect on film growth were investigated. The nitrogen doping efficiency was found to be very low, consistent with a model of film growth involving simultaneous deposition and etching, which predicts a doping efficiency of 10−4. The growth habit was found to change from (111) to (100) with increase of nitrogen in the gas phase from N/C = 0.1% to 10%. The growth rate of the diamond films increases, and the diamond Raman peak sharpens with the amount of nitrogen, a result consistent with the model on defect-induced stabilization of diamond.