Interlayers for diamond deposition on tool materials

The direct deposition of diamond on such tool materials as hard metals and steels is difficult because graphitizattion occurs and adhesion is poor. The following hard coatings have been investigated concerning their suitability as interlayers for diamond by hot-filament CVD. A sufficient diamond nucleation density was only reached by ultrasonic pretreatment with diamond powder. The nucleation density further depends on interlayer materials and substrate temperature. The determined nucleation densities were 10(exp5)-10(exp8) cm(exp-2)compared with 4-6 x 10(exp7) cm(exp-2) for untreated samples. No dependence of the nucleation density on a-C layer thickness was found. Raman spectroscopic results show that diamonds films with low non-diamond quantity grew on interlayers of TiC, SiC and SiC(x)N(y). In addition stress and adhesion were investigated. The poorest adhesive strength resulted for diamond on TiN and a-C. Silicon- containing interlayers such as Si3n4and SiC showed good adhesion wi th critical loads up to 22 N measured by scratch test.