The Effects of Impurities in Silicon Nitride Substrate on Tribological Behavior between Diamond Film and Silicon Nitride Ball

Diamond films were prepared by a hot filament vapor deposition onto polycrystal silicon nitride substrates. Different kinds of silicon nitride containing CaO and $Fe_{2}O_{3}$ were manufactured to investigate the impurity effect of substrate on the morphology of diamond films and their wear behaviors. Nucleation rates and morphologies of diamond films deposited on various kinds of silicon nitride were compared. The highest nucleation rate was observed in a substrate containing 1% of CaO. Wear tests were performed with a silicon nitride ball on the disk geometry to investigate the tribological behavior of diamond film against silicon nitride. This study demonstrated that different morphologies of diamond film due to substrate impurities produced different wear behavior against silicon nitride.