Effects of RIE treatments for {111} diamond substrates on the growth of P‐doped diamond thin films

The reactive ion etching (RIE) procedures were applied for mechanically polished {111} diamond substrates surfaces using oxygen and hydrogen gas sources to improve the crystalline quality of chemical vapor deposited (CVD) n‐type diamond layers. The growth of phosphorus‐doped films was performed on RIE treated diamond substrates by microwave plasma‐assisted CVD using phosphine (PH3) as a doping source. Cathodoluminescence (CL) measurements of the epilayer clearly revealed a significant decrease of the intensity of band‐A emission for samples with RIE pre‐treatment. The Hall mobility was also improved reproducibly for all the RIE pre‐treated samples. It was found that the RIE treatment of diamond {111} substrate is effective to obtain high quality n‐type diamond thin films reproducibly. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)