Crystallographic anisotropy of wear on a polycrystalline diamond surface

We correlate topography and diffraction measurements to demonstrate that grain orientation profoundly influences polishing rates in polycrystalline diamond synthesized by chemical vapor deposition. Grains oriented with {111} or {100} planes perpendicular to the surface normal polish at significantly lower rates compared with grains of all other orientations when the surface is polished in continuously varying in-plane directions. These observations agree with predictions of the periodic bond chain vector model, developed previously for single crystals, and indicate that the polishing rate depends strongly on the number of periodic bond chain vectors that are within 10° of the exposed surface plane.