<title>Polishing of polycrystalline diamond films</title>

Abstract

Optically smooth surfaces can be produced on initially rough polycrystalline diamond film through the combined use of reactive ion etching and high temperature lapping on Fe metai Protective thin film barriers are first applied to the diamond surface to restrict the reactiv oxygen or hydrogen ion etching process to regions of greatest roughness. When the overaJ surface roughness has been reduced sufficiently by etching mechanical lapping of the surfac on an Fe plate at temperatures of 730C-900C in the presence of hydrogen can be used t produce surface roughnesses of less than 10 nm as measured by profilimetry. The tw techniques are complementary for flat surfaces while the reactive etching process alone can b used with shaped substrates to produce a surface finish suitable for LWIR optical applications. 1.