Epitaxial diamond thin films on (001) silicon substrates

Epitaxial (001) diamond films were grown on mirror- polished monocrystalline (001) silicon substrates by microwave plasma chemical vapour deposition from a methane/hydrogen gas mixture. The films were characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray analysis. The results show that the diamond crystallites are oriented to the silicon substrate with both the (001) planes and the (110) directions parallel to the silicon substrate.