Heteroepitaxial growth of smooth and continuous diamond thin films on silicon substrates via high quality silicon carbide buffer layers

Smooth and continuous diamond films have been heteroepitaxially grown on β-type silicon carbide (β-SiC) (001) surfaces. The smooth films can be obtained in the thickness of less than 6 μm which is the smallest in heteroepitaxial diamonds. The epitaxial growth is composed of three steps; (i) Bias enhanced nucleation on β-SiC (001) grown on silicon (001), (ii) 〈001〉 fast growth mode for the selection of epitaxially oriented particles, and (iii) 〈111〉 fast growth mode for the smoothing of (001) surface. High quality silicon carbide (001) surface is effective for oriented diamond nucleation. The winnowing process of oriented particles and the surface adjustment are due to the high surface energy of diamond.