S. Kiyohara et al., ION-BEAM SMOOTHING OF CVD DIAMOND THIN-FILMS BY ETCHBACK METHOD, Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section B, Beam interactions with materials and atoms, 121(1-4), 1997, pp. 191-194
Smoothing of chemical vapor deposited (CVD) diamond thin films with ar
gon ion beams, and oxygen ion beams, and with both ion beams by the et
chback method was investigated. Diamond thin films synthesized by the
hot filament CVD method were used as samples. The samples were etched
using an ion beam etching apparatus with a Kaufman-type ion source. Co
nsequently, the surface roughness is extremely improved from 0.38 mu m
R(a) (as-grown) to 0.18 mu m R(a) at the etched depth of 7.2 mu m for
1000 eV argon ions at an ion incident angle of 0 degrees. For 1000 eV
oxygen ions at an ion incident angle of 80 degrees, the surface rough
ness is also extremely improved from 0.38 mu m R(a) (as-grown) to 0.18
mu m R(a) at the etched depth of 5.5 mu m. With the use of the etchba
ck method, the surface roughness decreases rapidly with increasing etc
hed depth and is reduced from 0.38 mu m R(a) (as-grown) to 0.06 mu m R
(a) at the etched depth of 4.0 mu m.