Process for adhering an oxide of silicon to a diamond surface having non-diamond carbon thereon

摘要

An article includes a diamond substrate which is securely adhered to a robust layer of silica layer that cannot be scratched by a tungsten probe or delaminated from the diamond substrate by pulling on a gold wire secured to the silica layer. This aricle can be made by electrochemically cleaning the diamond substrate to remove non-diamond carbon adhering thereto, depositing a fragile layer of silica layer which weakly bonds to the cleaned diamond, and annealing the fragile silica layer to convert it into a strongly bonded and robust silicon dioxide layer. The article is particularly useful in electronics, and has a low leakage current and low responsiveness to visible light.