THE EFFECT OF CARBON AND NITROGEN IMPLANTATION ON THE ABRASION RESISTANCE OF TYPE-IIA-(110) DIAMOND

The possibility of enhancing the wear characteristics of diamond has g enerated considerable interest. In the present study type IIa diamond has been implanted with 100 keV carbon and nitrogen ions at temperatur es of 150, 470 and 920 K. These temperatures correspond to different d efect mobility regimes, whilst nitrogen and carbon were chosen in an a ttempt to examine possible chemical effects of the ion species on the abrasion resistance of type IIa diamond. The results of abrasion testi ng using low load multiple pass scratch testing with a Rockwell diamon d indenter are presented. These indicate that there is an increase in wear rate in both the soft [100] and hard [110BAR] directions followin g ion implantation. For a given dose the wear rate increases as the im plant temperature is reduced. Optical transmission spectra taken in th e wavelength region 200 to 750 nm show a corresponding trend in that t he implantation induced absorption increases with decreasing implant t emperature.