New Electrochemical Based Polishing Methods for Processing Diamond Surfaces

金刚石是一种具有许多极端性质的材料，它使许多领域的技术和性能取得了进步，包括工业切割/融合、量子信息处理和通信、磁场和电场传感、辐射硬粒子探测器和电化学传感以及废水净化中激光和微波功率密度的增加。在许多此类应用中，优化性能的关键是制备无缺陷/损伤表面和近表面区域。这是非常具有挑战性的，因为钻石不同于硅或金属等材料，在这些材料中，制备高质量表面的过程是众所周知的。降低钻石表面粗糙度最常用的方法是机械抛光。然而，这本身就是众所周知的，因为它会引入抛光线和亚表面损坏。该项目的总体目标是开发新的基于化学和电化学的去除钻石表面材料的方法，以显著降低表面粗糙度，消除抛光线，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整度和光滑度。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：-研究能够以受控和无缺陷的方式去除钻石的电化学方法，最初与掺硼材料合作-开发用于处理未掺杂钻石的联合UV-电化学系统，其中UV作用于显著增加钻石中的电荷载流子浓度-证明该技术适用于100微米厚的S以及；50微米厚钻石.电(化学)-机械联合抛光方法的探索.电化学和表面科学表征技术培训.不同应用中预制表面的研究，与最先进的机械抛光和等离子蚀刻表面的比较

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