Abstract
This paper describes the affected layer of a polished diamond. Hydrogen plasma etching, expected mild etching reaction, is proposed to estimate the layer. This method was applied to a single crystal diamond whose (001) surface was polished in the direction of (100) by vitrified bonded diamond grinding wheels of #400 or #1500. By both of these grinding wheels, polished surfaces were observed smooth. Once the surfaces were etched, V-shape cracks appeared in a line and the average crack length are 14pim and 61.tm, respectively. Further, (001) surface was polished to (110) direction, different from V-shape cracks, and bar-shape cracks perpendicular in the polishing direction appeared. The results obtained are as follows; (1) Hydrogen plasma etching is available to estimate the affected layer of diamond. (2) Affected layer exists under the mechanically polished diamond surface. (3) Shape and dimension of affected layer depend on both polishing direction and grain size.
