Manufacture and development of nanostructured diamond tools

Abstract

Chemical vapor deposited diamond films have many industrial applications but are assuming increasing importance in the area of microfabrication, most notably in the development of diamond-coated micro-tools. For these applications the control of structure and morphology is of critical importance. The crystallite size, orientation, surface roughness, and the degree of sp3 character have a profound effect on the machining properties of the films deposited. In this chapter, experimental results are presented on the effects of nitrogen doping on the surface morphology, crystallite size, and wear of micro-tools. The sp3 character optimizes at 200 ppm of nitrogen and above this value the surface becomes much smoother and crystal sizes decrease considerably.