214 Int. J. Surface Science and Engineering, Vol. 6, No. 3, 2012 Copyright © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Effect of substrate temperature on hot-filament CVD grown diamond films at constant filament current M. Ali* Department of Physics, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, 44000, Park Road, Islamabad, Pakistan Fax: +92-51-9247006 E-mail: mubarak74@comsats.edu.pk *Corresponding author I.A. Qazi School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology, 44000, Islamabad, Pakistan E-mail: ishtiaq_qazi@iese.nust.edu.pk Abstract: This is a systematic study of diamond films grown over silicon substrate by the hot-filament chemical vapour deposition technique at substrate temperatures of 750–50–1,000°C. The resulting films are characterised using the scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. Our observations are that with the increase in the substrate temperature the morphology of deposited film changed from cauliflower structure to pyramidal featured structure. At substrate temperature of 950°C, planar growth of diamond film was observed, showing good purity crystals. This type of growth has potential for applications where atomically flat surface at localised regions is a prime concern. Keywords: thin films; crystal structure; crystal morphology; growth rate; surface science. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Ali, M. and Qazi, I.A. (2012) ‘Effect of substrate temperature on hot-filament CVD grown diamond films at constant filament current’, Int. J. Surface Science and Engineering, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp.214–230. Biographical notes: M. Ali graduated from the University of the Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan with a BSc in 1996. He studied MSc at Bahauddin Zakriya University in Multan, Pakistan (1998) and PhD (Mechanical Engineering) from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Johor, Malaysia (2007) and gained his post doctorate (Advance Surface Technologies) from Istanbul Technical University, in Turkey (2010). He worked as an Assistant Director/Deputy Director at PCRET, Ministry of Science and Technology, Pakistan from January 2000 to May 2008. He is working as an Assistant Professor (TTS) at COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad Campus since May 2008. His current research interests’ lie in carbon-based CVD thin films, thermal barrier coatings, PVD hard coatings, advance surface technologies and materials characterisation.