Thermomechanical Stability of Ultrananocrystalline Diamond

We have measured mechanical stiffness and dissipation in ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) from 63 K to 450 K using microcantilever resonators in a custom ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) atomic force microscope. UNCD exhibits a temperature coefficient of modulus that is found to be extremely low: -26 ppm/K, which is close to the previously measured value of -24 ppm/K for single crystal diamond. The magnitude and the temperature dependence of dissipation are consistent with the behavior of disordered systems. The results indicate that defects, most likely at the grain boundaries, create the dominant contribution to mechanical dissipation. These measurements of modulus and dissipation versus temperature in this temperature range in UNCD establish the nanostructure’s effect on the thermomechanical stability and suggest routes for tailoring these properties.