Preparation of free-standing diamond films for high frequency SAW devices

Free-standing diamond films were prepared by hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) method under different conditions. Inter-digital transducers (IDTs) were formed on the nucleation sides of free-standing diamond films by photolithography technique. Then piezoelectric ZnO films were deposited by radio-frequency(RF) reactive magnetron sputtering to obtain the ZnO/diamond film structures. Surface morphologies of the nucleation sides and the IDTs were characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM) and optical microscopy. The results indicate that the surfaces of nucleation sides are very smooth and the IDTs are of high quality without discontinuity and short circuit phenomenon. Raman spectra show the sharp diamond feature peak at about 1 334 cm−1 and the small amount of non-diamond carbon in the nucleation side. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the structure of ZnO/diamond films show a strong diffraction peak of ZnO (002), which indicates that as-sputtered ZnO films are highly c-axis oriented.