Surface smoothing of single-crystal diamond by high-speed cluster impacts with and without reactive erosion

摘要

The smoothness of cluster-eroded surfaces of natural and synthetic diamond (Monodite) is compared after erosion with high-speed CO2 as well as Ar cluster beams. The reactive accelerated cluster erosion (RACE) of the single-crystal diamond substrates using CO2 clusters leads to a fourfold larger root-mean-square roughness than the erosion with non-reactive Ar clusters. On the other hand, the erosion rate observed with the accelerated Ar clusters is lower by about the same factor than that observed with the accelerated CO2 clusters. Molecular dynamics calculations reveal corresponding differences already in the simulations of single cluster impacts. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd. [References: 21]