在剛成長的鑽石薄膜表面可以觀測到氧和碳的訊號。其中氧的訊號可能是因為水的物理性吸收或是弱氧的鍵結所形成。在經過800ºC的回火處理後,在表面會有著明顯的氧化現象。然而,在後續的矽基材蝕劇處理後,則會發現薄膜表面的氧化鍵結以及鑽石晶體表面的矽跟氧化矽的成分在蝕刻的過程中被蝕刻去除的情形。此外,經由AES對鑽石薄膜作縱深成分的分析,在回火後的鑽石薄膜其背面約1100Å處,仍可發現氧和矽的訊號且維持在一定的強度。由此可推測出鑽石/矽介面中的非鑽石成分(包括SiC,SiO2,以及非晶形碳等…)在高溫回火過程中可能會經由熱擴散的方式穿越結晶邊界到達薄膜正面。
Polycystalline diamond films were deposited using methane/hydrogen gas mixture on silicon substrates by a microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) system. From XPS analysis, the oxygen and the carbon signals were observed for the as-deposited diamond film. The oxygen signal was due to physiosorbed water or weakly bound oxygen species. After the 800ºC annealing process, the Si-Si (99.8 eV), Si-O (102.8 eV), Si-Ox (104.8 eV) and the C-O (286.5 eV) bonds appeared for the surface of the diamond film. Moreover, it was shown that the film quality was improved by the 800ºC annealing process. However, it was found that the oxygen signal decreased and the silicon and silicon-oxide bonds almost disappeared for the top surface of the isolated/annealed-diamond films. It was suggested the oxidized dangling bonds and the silicon components on diamond crystallite surfaces were etched away partly by back-etching process. Furthermore, from AES analyses, the oxygen and the silicon signals were approximately estimated to be more than 1100 Å from the bottom surface of isolated/annealed-diamond films. This indicated that the non-diamond components (included the SiC, SiO2 and amorphous carbon etc…) in the diamond/silicon interface might be thermally diffused through the grain boundaries to the top surface of the isolated/annealed-diamond films. These findings may be influential in the development on the characteristic of diamond electrical devices in the future.