A New Diamond Chemical Vapor Deposition Method on Steel Surface

Abstract

Steel coated with diamond film is excellent material specifically for cutting tools. However, direct diamond deposition has been considered difficult. In the present study, a stainless steel surface was mechanically processed to directly deposit diamond on it. Diamond film was rarely obtained when the steel surface was rasped with sandpaper, metal file, or ground with a flat drill. In most cases, amorphous carbon was deposited on the surface. On the other hand, high-quality diamond was often deposited when regularly arranged pits were created on the surface using a drill. In this case, the diamond was deposited on the lips of the pits and the flat (nonprocessed) areas between (rather than on the inside of) the pits. The quality of diamond film obtained in the present work is the best reported for direct diamond chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on steel. It is an important discovery that high-quality diamond film can be directly deposited on steel surfaces via simple mechanical surface processing without interlayer or seeding.