Overgrowth of Single Crystal Diamond Using Defect-Selective Etching and Epitaxy Technique in Chemical Vapor Deposition

In this study, we demonstrated the defect-selective etching and epitaxy technique for defect reduction of a heteroepitaxial chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond substrate. First, an 8 nm layer of nickel was deposited on the diamond surface using an e-beam evaporator. Then, defect-selective etching was conducted through an in situ single process using microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD). After defect-selective etching, the diamond layer was overgrown by MPCVD. The defect density measured from the atomic force microscope image decreased from 3.27×108 to 2.02×108 cm−2. The first-order Raman peak of diamond shifted from 1340 to 1336 cm−1, and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) decreased from 9.66 to 7.66 cm−1. Through the defect-selective etching and epitaxy technique, it was confirmed that the compressive stress was reduced and the crystal quality improved.