Laser patterning of diamond. Part II. Surface nondiamond carbon formation and its removal

As diamond becomes more prevalent for electronic and research applications, methods of patterning diamond will be required. One such method, laser ablation, has been investigated in a related work. We report on the formation of surface nondiamond carbon during laser ablation of both polycrystalline and single-crystal synthetic diamonds. Near edge x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy was used to confirm that the nondiamond carbon layer formed during the ablation was amorphous, and Fourier transform infrared absorption spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to estimate the thickness of this layer to be similar to 60 nm. Ozone cleaning was used to remove the nondiamond carbon layer. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3152995]