Surface Modification of Polycrystalline Diamond Compacts by Carbon Ion Irradiation

Selective modification (e.g. defect creation and amorphization) of diamond surfaces is of interests for functional diamond-based semiconductors and devices. Bombarding the diamond surface with high energy radiation sources such as electron, proton, and neutrons, however, often result in detrimental defects in deep bulk regions under the diamond surface. In this study, we utilized high energy carbon ions of 3 MeV to bombard the polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) specimen. The resultant microstructure of PDCs was investigated using micro Raman spectroscopy. The results show that the carbon bombardment successfully created point defects and amorphization in a shallow region of ∼500 nm deep on the diamond surface. The new method has great potential to allow diamond-based semiconductor devices to be used in numerous applications.