<title>Growth, polishing, and optical scatter of diamond thin films</title>

Abstract

Polycrystalline diamond films have been synthesized in an oxygen-acetylene flame (15-20 tm thick and in a filament-assisted CYD reactor (10-60 p. m thick). The quality of the diamond was measured with a Raman microprobe optical and electron microscopes an FTIR and a UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer. The hemispherical transmittance and reflectance of several films was measured in the UV visible and infrared with integrating spheres. The transmittance and reflectance was found to depend on which surface of the film faces the spectrophotometer''s beam this result can be explained by total internal reflection effects and the different roughness scales of the film''s two surfaces. Preliminary results on the polishing of several FACVD films using a heated steel disk a rhenium filament and a hydrogen environment are discussed. An Auger depth profile of the steel disk shows graphite at the surface of the disk iron carbide in the bulk and a depletion of carbon in the bulk near the surface. The films'' surface roughness before and after polishing was measured with a profiometer and local roughness averages of A have been achieved. Results of optical scatter measurements made on films before and after polishing are presented. 1.