Optical, thermal and mechanical properties of CVD diamond

The exceptional combination of mechanical, thermal, chemical and optical properties of diamond make this material an ideal choice for numerous applications in which materials are required to operate in adverse environments exposed to abrasion or chemical attack, or in situations requiring the dissipation of extreme levels of power, such as windows for high power lasers. Progress in the synthesis and processing of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) diamond achieved at De Beer(1) Industrial Diamond Division (Debid) has opened many of these applications by bringing to the market a diamond material that is available in large areas, in industrial quantities and with the high quality and reproducible properties needed to meet the demanding requirements of the industry. This paper will review the properties of the different CVD diamond material grades used in optical, thermal and mechanical applications. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.