Among all the allotropic forms of carbon, diamond has attracted a broad scientific and technological interest for its extreme and unique properties rarely matched by other materials in nature. In a rapid rise from a technological point of view, much has been achieved in the study of obtaining this material through CVD technique. Studies of CVD diamond growth parameters of monocrystalline structure, underway in the team, are very expensive and time-consuming requiring in-depth studies of CVD diamond growth parameters of polycrystalline structure. So, this work presents an analysis focused on obtaining CVD diamond films with polycrystalline structure through the 2.45 GHz microwave plasma activation method (MWPACVD) in high power regime using a modified substrate holder to find a set of parameters appropriated for getting uniform quality and growth rate of thick films. The films were characterized using Raman scattering spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The results point to optimized conditions for depositing films with growth rates of up to 20 µm/h with low levels of intrinsic stress, good structural quality and uniform microcrystalline morphology along the deposition surface.

Single crystal diamond (SCD) is a promising material to satisfy emerging requirements of high-demand fields, such as microelectronics, beta batteries and wide-spectrum optical communication systems, due to its excellent optical characteristics, elevated breakdown voltage, high hardness and superior thermal conductivity. For such applications, it is essential to study the optically active defects in as-grown diamonds, namely three-dimensional defects (such as stacking faults and dislocations) and the inherent defects arising from the cultivation method. This paper reports the growth of SCD films on a commercial HPHT single-crystal diamond seed substrate using a 2.45 GHz microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (MWPACVD) technique by varying the methane (CH4) gas concentration from 6 to 12%, keeping the other parameters constant. The influence of the CH4 concentration on the properties, such as structural quality, morphology and thickness, of the highly oriented SCD films in the crystalline plane (004) was investigated and compared with those on the diamond substrate surface. The SCD film thickness is dependent on the CH4 concentration, and a high growth rate of up to 27 µm/h can be reached. Raman spectroscopy, high-resolution X-ray diffractometry (HRXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), surface profilometry and optical microscopic analyses showed that the produced homoepitaxial SCD films are of good quality with few macroscopic defects.