Jiang, X.X.JiangXia, Y.B.Y.B.XiaZhang, W.J.W.J.Zhang2022-03-032022-03-031997https://publica.fraunhofer.de/handle/publica/19124910.1063/1.365995A novel etching effect of hydrogen ions on the growth of diamond films was observed. The H+ ion bombardment was performed by applying a negative substrate bias during a microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition process, using only hydrogen as a reactant gas. The effect of this bombardment was investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy. It was found that the etching efficiency of H+ ions on non-[001]-oriented grains is more significant than that on grains with their (001) faces parallel to the substrate. A lateral growth of the (001) faces can occur during the bombardment process. As a result, the size of (001) faces increases after H+ etching while grains with other directions are etched off. This effect provides a way to improve the orientation degree of [001] oriented diamond films and might be helpful for obtaining [001] oriented diamond films with small thickness.enelemental-semiconductorsdiamondthin filmsplasma etchingetching667530journal article