Mosaicity, dislocations and strain in heteroepitaxial diamond grown on iridium

•Multiscale characterization of heteroepitaxial diamond grown on iridium•Crystal mosaicity probed with XRD reciprocal space mappings on asymmetrical nodes•Correlation between XRD, Raman and CL analysis•Threading dislocation counting with non-destructive CL images•Splitting and shift of free excitons due to anisotropic strain at the micrometer scale

The present study provides a multi-scale investigation of the crystalline quality and the structural defects present in heteroepitaxial diamond films grown on iridium/SrTiO3 (001) substrates by microwave plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition. X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and low temperature cathodoluminescence are combined to accurately characterize the mosaicity, the density of dislocations and the residual strain within the films. X-ray diffraction and Raman results confirm a structural quality at the state-of-the-art according to the epitaxial relationship 〈100〉diamond(001) // 〈100〉iridium(001) // 〈100〉SrTiO3 (001). In addition, Raman and cathodoluminescence observations on cross-sections reveal the presence of local strain.

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