Fabrication of (111)-Faced Single-Crystal Diamond Plates by Laser Nucleated Cleaving

TL;DR

This paper presents a laser-based method to reliably produce large, atomically flat (111)-faced single-crystal diamond plates from standard substrates, enabling advanced device applications.

Contribution

A novel laser nucleated cleaving technique for precise, large-area (111)-faced diamond plates from commercially available substrates.

Findings

Achieved (111)-faced plates up to 3.0 mm×0.3 mm with flat surfaces

Demonstrated a laser-based cleaving process with negligible kerf loss

Provided insights into the physical mechanisms of laser-induced cleaving

Abstract

Single-crystal diamond plates with surfaces oriented in a (111) crystal plane are required for high-performance solid-state device platforms ranging from power electronics to quantum information processing architectures. However, producing plates with this orientation has proven challenging. In this paper, we demonstrate a method for reliably and precisely fabricating (111)-faced plates from commercially available, chemical-vapor-deposition-grown, type-IIa single-crystal diamond substrates with (100) faces. Our method uses a nanosecond-pulsed visible laser to nucleate and propagate a mechanical cleave in a chosen (111) crystal plane, resulting in faces as large as 3.0 mm$\times$0.3 mm with atomically flat surfaces, negligible miscut angles, and near zero kerf loss. We discuss the underlying physical mechanisms of the process along with potential improvements that will enable the production of millimeter-scale (111)-faced single-crystal diamond plates for a variety of emerging devices and applications.