Study on nanosecond laser-induced iron plasma reactive etching of single-crystal CVD diamond

Single-crystal diamond has great potential applications in national defense, military, and aerospace fields. However, the high hardness, chemical inertness, and anisotropy bring great challenges to machine microstructures on the diamond. Here, iron plasma, generated by infrared nanosecond laser ablation of a Fe target, was utilized to etch single-crystal diamond. The EDS, Raman, and XPS analysis revealed the formation of iron carbide within the sputtered layer surrounding the diamond microgrooves, thereby confirming that the iron plasma reacts chemically with the diamond. It was observed that employing a reactive metal, such as iron, for etching diamond microgrooves yields improved morphological characteristics and enhanced etching efficiency compared to the use of a non-reactive metal, such as copper. Moreover, the process of material removal through laser-induced iron plasma etching of diamond was elucidated. Subsequently, a systematic investigation was conducted on the impact of processing parameters on the laser-induced iron plasma etching of diamonds. Various periodic microstructures with regular edges and no chipping and cracks were successfully processed on the diamond using suitable laser parameters. This study furnishes a novel approach for the efficient fabrication of high-quality microstructures on single-crystal diamonds.