Experimental study of hydrogen plasma etching of (1Â 0Â 0) single crystal diamond in a MPACVD reactor

Hydrogen plasma etching of (1 0 0) surfaces of single crystal diamonds were investigated. Etching rates, surface morphology of the etched diamond samples and shape of etch-pits were analyzed. These experiments demonstrated that the etching rate increases exponentially with increasing substrate temperature, strongly depends on crystal surface orientation and increases with an increasing vicinal angle. The activation energy for the etching process on (1 0 0) diamond was determined (Ea=45.4±4.5 kcal/mol). Hydrogen plasma etching could be used for revealing substrate defects and preparing substrate surface prior to CVD growth.