High-rate ultrasonic polishing of polycrystalline diamond films

We report on fast polishing of polycrystalline CVD diamond films by ultrasonic machining in a slurry with diamond particles. The material removal mechanism is based on diamond micro-chipping by the bombarding diamond particles subjected to action of an ultrasonic radiator. The treated samples were characterized with optical profilometry, SEM, AFM and micro-Raman spectroscopy. The developed method demonstrates the polishing rate higher than those known for mechanical or thermo-mechanical polishing, particularly, the surface roughness of 0.5mm thick film can be reduced in a static regime from initial value Ra≈5μm to Ra≈0.5μm for the processing time as short as 5min. No appearance of amorphous carbon on the lapped surface was revealed, however, formation of defects in a sub-surface layer of a few microns thickness was deduced using Raman spectroscopy. The polishing of a moving workpiece confirmed the possibility to treat large-area diamond films. [Display omitted] •Polishing of polycrystalline CVD diamond with big rate is achieved using an ultrasonic machining (USM) with a diamond slurry.•The surface roughness Ra can be reduced from ≈5μm down to ≈0.5μm just for 5min treatment.•Defects are formed in a sub-surface layer (