ABSTRACT
Bragg diffraction imaging enables the quality of synthetic single-crystal diamond substrates and their overgrown, mostly doped, diamond layers to be characterized. This is very important for improving diamond-based devices produced for X-ray optics and power electronics applications. The usual first step for this characterization is white-beam X-ray diffraction topography, which is a simple and fast method to identify the extended defects (dislocations, growth sectors, boundaries, stacking faults, overall curvature etc.) within the crystal. This allows easy and quick comparison of the crystal quality of diamond plates available from various commercial suppliers. When needed, rocking curve imaging (RCI) is also employed, which is the quantitative counterpart of monochromatic Bragg diffraction imaging. RCI enables the local determination of both the effective misorientation, which results from lattice parameter variation and the local lattice tilt, and the local Bragg position. Maps derived from these parameters are used to measure the magnitude of the distortions associated with polishing damage and the depth of this damage within the volume of the crystal. For overgrown layers, these maps also reveal the distortion induced by the incorporation of impurities such as boron, or the lattice parameter variations associated with the presence of growth-incorporated nitrogen. These techniques are described, and their capabilities for studying the quality of diamond substrates and overgrown layers, and the surface damage caused by mechanical polishing, are illustrated by examples.
ABSTRACT
A simple, fast and cost-effective etching technique to create oriented nanostructures such as pyramidal and cylindrical shaped nanopores in diamond membranes by self-assembled metallic nanoparticles is proposed. In this process, a diamond film is annealed with thin metallic layers in a hydrogen atmosphere. Carbon from the diamond surface is dissolved into nanoparticles generated from the metal film, then evacuated in the form of hydrocarbons and, consequently, the nanoparticles enter the crystal volume. In order to understand and optimize the etching process, the role of different parameters such as type of catalyst (Ni, Co, Pt, and Au), hydrogen gas, temperature and time of annealing, and microstructure of diamond (polycrystalline and nanocrystalline) were investigated. With this technique, nanopores with lateral sizes in the range of 10-100 nm, and as deep as about 600 nm, in diamond membranes were produced without any need for a lithography process, which opens the opportunities for fabricating porous diamond membranes for chemical sensing applications.
ABSTRACT
A suspended system for measuring the thermal properties of membranes is presented. The sensitive thermal measurement is based on the 3ω dynamic method coupled to a Völklein geometry. The device obtained using micro-machining processes allows the measurement of the in-plane thermal conductivity of a membrane with a sensitivity of less than 10 nW/K (+∕-5 × 10(-3) Wm(-1) K(-1) at room temperature) and a very high resolution (ΔK/K = 10(-3)). A transducer (heater/thermometer) centered on the membrane is used to create an oscillation of the heat flux and to measure the temperature oscillation at the third harmonic using a Wheatstone bridge set-up. Power as low as 0.1 nW has been measured at room temperature. The method has been applied to measure thermal properties of low stress silicon nitride and polycrystalline diamond membranes with thickness ranging from 100 nm to 400 nm. The thermal conductivity measured on the polycrystalline diamond membrane support a significant grain size effect on the thermal transport.
