Diamond thin films were deposited on pretreated Co cemented tungsten carbide (WC-6%Co) inserts as substrate by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) system, equipped with a 915MHz, 30kW generator for generating a large-size plasma. The substrates were pretreated with two solutions Murakami solution [KOH:K3Fe(CN)6:H2O] and nitric solution [HNO3:H2O] to etch, WC and Co at cemented carbide substrates, respectively. The deposition experiments were performed at an input power of 10 kW and in a total pressure of 100 torr. The influence of various CH4 contents on the crystallinity and morphology of the diamond films deposited in MPCVD was investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy. The diamond film synthesized by the CH4 plasma shows a triangle-faceted (111) diamond. As CH4 contents was increased, the thickness of diamond films increased and the faceted planes disappeared. Finally, Faceted diamond changed into nano-crystalline diamond with random crystallinity.
