Ultraviolet laser-induced etching is a method of machining and nanostructuring diamond surfaces in which carbon is removed from the surface via a photochemical process involving oxygen. We show here that using a dry source of oxygen at pressures in the range of 0.01–1 Torr leads to a 10-fold increase in the etch rate compared to etching in atmospheric air. The enhanced etch rate is also found to be accompanied by a marked change in the nanopatterned surface morphology. We developed a rate equation model for the etch rate that provides good agreement with measurements for pressures up to approximately 0.1 Torr. For higher pressures, the reduced etch rate and departure from the model are attributed to the contamination of the diamond surface by trace amounts of water vapor, introduced as an impurity from the gas sources. The results provide a method for markedly increasing the etch rate, as well as a better understanding of the role of gas impurities on the etch mechanism and emergent nanopattern formation.

中文翻译：

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在低压条件下提高深紫外激光诱导蚀刻金刚石的蚀刻速率

紫外激光诱导蚀刻是一种加工和纳米结构化金刚石表面的方法，其中通过涉及氧气的光化学过程从表面去除碳。我们在这里表明，与在大气中蚀刻相比，在 0.01-1 Torr 范围内的压力下使用干燥的氧气源导致蚀刻速率增加 10 倍。还发现提高的蚀刻速率伴随着纳米图案表面形态的显着变化。我们为蚀刻速率开发了一个速率方程模型，该模型与高达约 0.1 Torr 的压力测量值非常吻合。对于更高的压力，降低的蚀刻速率和偏离模型归因于金刚石表面被微量水蒸气污染，作为杂质从气体源引入。