Menelaos Tsigkourakos

Rippling on Wear Scar Surfaces of Nanocrystalline Diamond Films After Reciprocating Sliding Against Ceramic Balls

The formation of nanoscopic ripple patterns on top of material surfaces has been reported for different materials and processes, such as sliding against polymers, high-force scanning in atomic force microscopy (AFM), and surface treatment by ion beam sputtering. In this work, we show that such periodic ripples can also be obtained in prolonged reciprocating sliding against nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films. NCD films with a thickness of 0.8xa0µm were grown on top of silicon wafer substrates by hot-filament chemical vapor deposition using a mixture of methane and hydrogen. The chemical structure, surface morphology, and surface wear were characterized by Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and AFM. The tribological properties of the NCD films were evaluated by reciprocating sliding tests against Al2O3, Si3N4, and ZrO2 counter balls. Independent of the counter body material, clear ripple patterns with typical heights of about 30xa0nm induced during the sliding test are observed by means of AFM and SEM on the NCD wear scar surfaces. Although the underlying mechanisms of ripple formation are not yet fully understood, these surface corrugations could be attributed to the different wear phenomena, including a stress-induced micro-fracture and plastic deformation, a surface smoothening, and a surface rehybridization from diamond bonding to an sp2 configuration. The similarity between ripples observed in the present study and ripples reported after repeated AFM tip scanning indicates that ripple formation is a rather universal phenomenon occurring in moving tribological contacts of different materials.

Investigation of Morphology Changes on Nanocrystalline Diamond Film Surfaces during Reciprocating Sliding against Si3N4 Balls

This paper investigates the morphological modifications of the nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) film surface under reciprocating sliding test conditions. The surface morphology was characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM). We observed longitudinal grooves and transverse ripples which were formed during the sliding tests on the NCD film surface. The primary goal of the study was to understand the influence of frequency, sliding distance and load variations on the formation of ripple patterns on the wear scars surface. The morphological alteration from continuous to broken ripple shapes was observed. Our study suggests that the geometrical shape of ripples is affected by the formation of the periodic array of grooves.