Ultra-precision processing of diamond with oxygen ion beams

Abstract

In order to apply the reactive ion beam etching with oxygen ions to ultra-precision processing of diamond tools, the dependences of the etching rate of the (100) face of single crystal diamond on the ion energy, the ion incidence angle, the ion current density and the work-piece temperature were investigated. The etching rate for “reactive” oxygen ion beam etching which includes both physical sputtering and chemical etching is about ten times larger than that for ion beam etching using “inert” argon ions which causes only physical sputtering. Moreover, the surface roughness of the diamond chip after oxygen ion beam etching which was measured using Atomic Force Microscope is about six times smaller than that before etching.