Determination of bulk residual stresses in superhard diamond-SiC materials

Superhard silicon carbide bonded diamond materials can be produced by liquid silicon infiltration of diamond containing preforms. These materials can be produced as bulk materials and as layered materials with the SiC bonded diamond only in areas where it is required. In order to understand the behaviour of the materials it is necessary to know the internal stresses in the different phases and at the interface. These stresses were determined by Raman spectroscopy and in the bulk by neutron diffraction using the SALSA instrument in the ILL. In the SiC bonded diamond material the diamond and the remaining Si are under compressive stresses. The SiC-phase is under tensile stresses up to 500 MPa. The Raman investigations and the neutron diffraction resulted in similar results. At the interface between the SiC-bonded diamond and the SiSiC no significant additional stresses could be observed.