Chemical vapour deposition synthetic diamond: materials, technology and applications

Abstract

Substantial developments have been achieved in the synthesis of chemical vapourdeposition (CVD) diamond in recent years, providing engineers and designers with accessto a large range of new diamond materials. CVD diamond has a number of outstandingmaterial properties that can enable exceptional performance in applications asdiverse as medical diagnostics, water treatment, radiation detection, high powerelectronics, consumer audio, magnetometry and novel lasers. Often the material issynthesized in planar form; however, non-planar geometries are also possible and enablea number of key applications. This paper reviews the material properties andcharacteristics of single crystal and polycrystalline CVD diamond, and how these can beutilized, focusing particularly on optics, electronics and electrochemistry. It alsosummarizes how CVD diamond can be tailored for specific applications, on thebasis of the ability to synthesize a consistent and engineered high performanceproduct.