Fabrication of diamond nano-whiskers

Aligned diamond whiskers were formed by air plasma etching of polycrystalline diamond films. A small amount of Mo was deposited on the diamond substrate for use as an etch-resistant mask, and the negatively biased substrate was etched by RF or DC plasma. The shape and the density of the whiskers depended on the etching parameters, such as substrate temperature, chamber pressure, bias voltage, etching power, and the amount of Mo. If the substrate temperature was high, for example, the whiskers became thick. With the optimum conditions, we could fabricate diamond whiskers as thin as 60 nm with a density of 50/mum(2). (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.