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The demand of small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) windows for in-situ characterization of materials nano-structures in a heated vacuum environment has been increased dramatically. High-quality diamond prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has become the preferred window material due to its excellent optical and mechanical properties. However, impurities and defects in diamonds may lead to the strong X-ray scattering especially in the heating process, affecting the testing accuracy of the object. In this work, single-crystal diamond (SCD) and polycrystalline diamond (PCD) films with different quality were prepared, and their SAXS properties were investigated at room temperature and heating under vacuum. The results show that the scattering intensity of the undoped high-quality SCD is small and uniform, while that of the SCD window doped with a small amount of nitrogen increases, mainly due to the nitrogen atoms and vacancy clusters scattering. While for the PCDs, the grain boundaries and the dark features lead to strong scattering background. As the temperature rises from room temperature to 280 °C, although the phonon vibration of diamonds exhibits the obvious temperature dependence, the coherent scattering of diamonds with X-ray hardly changes, indicating no new scatterers with the changed gyration radius were generated in the heating process. SCD and PCD windows were successfully applied in an in-situ heating SAXS cell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fabrication of GaN-on-diamond structure by the process of diamond growth on GaN technology is becoming more and more attractive for high-power GaN devices. However, due to the high-temperature steps employed during the GaN epitaxial layer transfer process, significant stress accumulates in the GaN-on-diamond structure and induces the formation of cracks or deformations in the GaN layer. To improve the stress characteristics of the GaN layer, in this work, dual-sided diamond film deposition was carried out to accomplish the GaN-on-diamond structure. The surface morphology, interface microstructure and crystal quality of diamond on GaN were analyzed by using scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The results showed that the stress accumulation originating from the GaN epitaxial layer transfer process was effectively alleviated as compared with other reporteds in the literature and that the crystal quality of the GaN was only slightly altered. The stress relaxation was attributed to the low-quality diamond used as the temporary carrier during the GaN transfer process. In addition, a thin SiC transition layer in the interface is also beneficial in alleviating the mismatch between the coefficients of thermal expansion for the GaN and the diamond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]