Evidence for layered growth of „100... textured diamond films

The growth of diamond films synthesized by the hot filament chemical vapor deposition method has
been studied by scanning tunneling microscopy ͑STM͒. The smooth ͑100͒ faces of micron-sized
diamond crystallites were found to exhibit pyramidal shaped architecture at the nano level. The
STM data for chemical vapor deposited diamond is analyzed in the light of recently developed
dynamical scaling approach. The value of the scaling exponent ␣ Х0.85 signifies a growth primarily
driven by the transport of reacting species on the surface rather than molecular diffusion in gas
phase.