CVD Diamond Interaction with Fe at Elevated Temperatures

Abstract

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond is a prospective thin film material for cuttingtools applications due to the extreme combination of hardness, chemical inertness, and thermalconductivity. However, the CVD diamond cutting ability of ferrous materials is strongly limiteddue to its extreme affinity to iron, cobalt, or nickel. The diamond–iron interaction and the diffusionbehavior in this system are not well studied and are believed to be similar to the graphite–ironmechanism. In this article, we focus on the medium-temperature working range of 400–800 ?C ofa CVD diamond–Fe system and show that for these temperatures etching of diamond by Fe is notas strong as is generally accepted. The starting point of the diamond graphitization in contact withiron was found around 400 ?C. Our results show that CVD diamond is applicable for the cutting offerrous materials under medium-temperature conditions.