Scratch adhesion testing of nanophase diamond coatings on steel and carbide substrates

Films of nanophase diamond are deposited in vacuum onto almost any substrat e by condensing multiply charged carbon ions carrying keV energies. These i ons are obtained from the laser ablation of graphite at intensities in exce ss of 10(11) W cm(-2) The high energies of condensation produce interfacial layers between the film and substrate materials, resulting in levels of ad hesion that can support the protection of substrates subjected to harsh env ironmental conditions. In this article, we give details of the scratch adhe sion testing performed on steel and carbide substrates coated with nanophas e diamond. A commercially available scratch tester was used and a data anal ysis was presented to quantitatively assess and measure the adhesion of fil ms on these important substrates. The characterization studies in this work demonstrated nanophase diamond as a highly adherent coating suitable for i ndustrial applications.