Evidence for layered growth of (100) textured diamond films

The growth of diamond films synthesized by the hot filament chemical vapor deposition method has been studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The smooth (100) faces of micron-sized diamond crystallites were found to exhibit pyramidal shaped architecture at the nano level. The STM data for chemical vapor deposited diamond is analyzed in the light of recently developed dynamical scaling approach. The value of the scaling exponent α≅0.85 signifies a growth primarily driven by the transport of reacting species on the surface rather than molecular diffusion in gas phase.