Isotope effects between hydrogen and deuterium microwave plasmas on chemical vapor deposition homoepitaxial diamond growth

This article shows that replacing hydrogen with deuterium improves the quality of microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition homoepitaxial diamond. Suppression of point defects in the bulk and of nonepitaxial crystallites and increasing of free-exciton emission intensity were revealed by electron paramagnetic resonance, optical microscopy, and cathodoluminescence, respectively. The isotope effects on the etching rate of diamond by deuterium are also revealed. The isotope effects are discussed from the viewpoint of etching effects. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.