File:Ta C wear (original).jpg

Scanning Tunneling Microscopic (STM) image of surfaces at the edge of a 1 μm thick layer of ta-C "diamond-like" coating on 304 stainless steel after various durations of tumbling in a slurry of 240 mesh SiC abrasive. The first 100 min shows a burnishing away from the coating of an overburden of soft carbons than had been deposited after the last cycle of impacts converting bonds to sp³. On the uncoated part of the sample about 5 μm of steel were removed during subsequent tumbling while the coating completely protected the part of the sample it covered.

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