Characterizations of etch pits formed on single crystal diamond surface using oxygen/hydrogen plasma surface treatment

Etch pits formed on (001)-oriented single crystal diamond surfaces by O/H plasma etching have been investigated using optical microscopy. Shapes of the formed pits are basically inverted-pyramidal hollows with the edge directions of the 〈110〉, but central areas of these pits have two types of shapes, point-bottom and flat-bottom ones. Depth profiles of the number densities of these two-type pits showed that at an early stage of the etching, a large number of the flat-bottom pits are observed, but disappear to a depth shallower than ~10μm. Compared with the other etching experiment using ion beam sputtering, such flat-bottom pits most likely correspond to the dislocations or microfractures introduced around the surface during surface polishing of the diamond substrates. On the other hand, point-bottom pits still continue to appear even in a deeper region. These correspond to “intrinsic” dislocations included originally inside the diamond substrate. All the tilt angles of the pit between the slope of the pit and top face of the substrate, characterizing the pit shape, were within the range of 3–7° and independent of their sizes in many pits investigated. It was found that the tilt angle and the activation energy of the etch rate obtained in this study are similar to that of an oxygen-gas related etching process. [Display omitted] •Etch pits were formed on (001) single crystal diamond using O/H plasma.•Two-types pits with tetrahedral hollows, characterized by point-bottom and flat-bottom shapes, were observed.•Only at an early stage of the etching, flat-bottom pits, due to dislocations or microfractures introduced during surface polishing, were observed.•Point-bottom pits correspond to “intrinsic” dislocations.•All the tilt angles of the pits are within the range of 3−7°.•The tilt angles and the activation energy of the etch rate using O/H plasma are similar to oxygen-gas related etching.