Research of reactive ion and plasma-chemical etching effect on diamond coating surface morphology

Abstract

The effect of treatment by reactive ion etching in an argon atmosphere, and hydrogen plasma etching in a glow discharge plasma on the surface of the diamond films was investigated. Diamond films were deposited by the Chemical Vapor Deposition method on the hard alloy VK-8 substrates. The crystallites direction under the influence of argon ion beam processing was changed by 45 degrees from the original. The surface morphology becomes more developed (an average value of 20%) by etching in a glow discharge plasma in an atmosphere of hydrogen. Raman spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscope and Atomic Force Microscopy were used to determine the phase and microstructure composition of deposited films.