Erosion resistance of polycrystalline diamond films to atomic oxygen Original Research Article

Polycrystalline diamond films deposited using hot filament chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique have been investigated in atomic oxygen simulated as low earth orbit environment to examine their erosion resistance properties. After exposure to the atomic oxygen beam with a flux of 2.6×1016 atoms/cm2 s, the diamond films only show a small mass loss. The reaction efficiency is estimated to be between 6.35×10−26 and 8.28×10−26 cm3/atom. Oxidation mechanism is investigated through the reaction temperature influence on the reaction rate. We suggest that atomic oxygen reacts with diamond surface and forms ether (C–O–C) and carbonyl (>CO) configurations besides eroding the surface.