Study on Ion Beam Machining of Diamond Tools

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Diamond tools can be used as knives of an ultramicrotome and ophthalmic sergon's instrument, and single point diamond tools for ultraprecision turning of soft materials such as aluminum. The tools are usually made by mechanical polishing; that is, using fine diamond powder and a lap-plate of soft materials. However it is very difficult to apply this process to the polishing of diamond tools having a sharp cutting edge of tip radius of ten nm (nanometer). In this study, a new edge forming process combined mechanical lapping with ion beam machining and measurment of the tip radius of diamond tools using the profile SEM having two secondary electron detectors were discussed, and the following results are obtained.(1) The tip radius of the diamond tools can be measured using profile SEM, and the tip radius of the formed diamond tools is considered less than 20 nm.(2) The diamond knives having apex angle of 50 degrees can be formed with 20 keV Ar ions.(3) Diamond tools having sharp and straight dege and fine surface topography can be easily obtaibed by ion beam machining.