Stress and crystallinity in <100>, <110>, and <111> oriented diamond films studied using Raman microscopy

Stress and crystallinity variations along the growth direction in three diamond films of different preferred orientations have been investigated using Raman microscopy to monitor the change in band center and full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the first-order diamond phonon with distance along a single diamond crystal. The results showed a consistent trend for the <100> oriented film, with both the peak position and FWHM being largest close to the silicon substrate and decreasing along the direction of crystal growth. The <110> and <111> orientations showed random variation throughout.