New Electrochemical Based Polishing Methods for Processing Diamond Surfaces

金刚石是一种具有许多极端特性的材料，这些特性使许多领域的技术和性能进步成为可能，包括工业切割/融合中的激光和微波功率密度增加，量子信息处理和通信，磁场和电场传感，抗辐射粒子探测器和电化学传感以及废水净化。在许多这些应用中优化性能的关键是制备无缺陷/损伤表面和近表面区域。这是令人难以置信的挑战，因为金刚石不像硅或金属等材料，这些材料的制备过程是众所周知的高质量表面。降低金刚石表面粗糙度的最常用方法是机械抛光。然而，这本身是众所周知的引入抛光线和亚表面损伤。该项目的总体目标是开发新的化学和电化学方法，从金刚石表面去除材料，以显著降低表面粗糙度，去除抛光线，最大限度地减少表面缺陷和亚表面缺陷的形成，同时保持高水平的平坦度和光滑度。该材料将在不同的电化学和光学应用中进行测试。该项目将涉及但不限于：- 研究生产能够以受控和无缺陷的方式去除金刚石的金刚石蚀刻剂物质的电化学方法，最初使用硼掺杂材料。其中紫外线的作用是显着增加金刚石中的电荷载流子浓度-证明该技术适用于>100微米厚以及< 50微米厚的金刚石-探索组合电（化学）-机械抛光方法-电化学和表面科学表征技术培训-不同应用中制备表面的研究，与最先进的机械抛光和等离子体蚀刻表面的比较

Diamond is a material that has many extreme properties which has enabled technology and performance advances in many fields, including increased laser and microwave power densities in industrial cutting / fusion, quantum information processing and communication, magnetic and electric field sensing, radiation-hard particle detectors and electrochemical sensing and waste water clean-up. Key to optimizing performance in many of these applications is preparation of a defect /damage free surface and near surface region. This is incredibly challenging as diamond is unlike materials such as silicon or metals, where procedures are known for preparing high quality surfaces. The most common method for reducing surface roughness in diamond is to mechanically polish. However, this in itself is well-known for introducing polishing lines and sub-surface damage. The overall aim of this project is to develop new chemical and electrochemical based methods of removing material from the diamond surface to significantly reduce surface roughness, remove polishing lines and minimize surface defects and sub- surface defect formation, while maintain highlevels of flatness and smoothness. The material will be tested in different electrochemical and optical applications.The project will involve but is not limited to:- Investigate electrochemical methods of producing diamond etchant species capable of removing diamond in a controlled and defect free manner, initially working with boron doped material- Development of a combined UV-electrochemical system for work with undoped diamond, where the UV acts to significantly increase the charge carrier concentration in diamond- Proving the technology works with >100's microns thick as well as < 50 micrometre thick diamond- Exploration of combined electro(chemical)-mechanical polishing methods- Training in electrochemical and surface science characterisation techniques- Investigation of prepared surfaces in different applications, comparison against state-of -the-art mechanically polished and plasma etched surfaces