A new surface pretreatment approach for enhancing diamond nucleation

In this paper we present a new approach of surface pretreatment for enhanci ng diamond nucleation. The copper substrates were fixed inside a plastic cy linder container with diamond powder diluted in water. This container was c oupled to a vibration unit moving up and down at similar to 300 cycles/min with a stroke of 15 mm. Finally, samples pretreated for 30 min were deposit ed with diamond. A high nucleation density comparable to that on substrate abraded with diamond powder was achieved. This method proved to be more eff ective than our ultrasonic treatment, keeping the advantages of surface pre servation. Being simple and straightforward, this "shaking" pretreatment mo st fits the cases where a thin interlayer has to be used (like diamond coat ing on steel) and where the samples have a complex shape.