Research of Reactive Ion and Plasma-Chemical Etching Effect on Diamond Coating Surface Morphology.

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]