Diamond-coated fibres have been fabricated using hot filament chemical
vapour deposition (CVD) and tested for mechanical stiffness. The fibr
es coated include small(<20 mu m diameter) commercially available samp
les such as Nicalon, Tyranno, Nextel, Alter and Hi-Nicalon, as well as
thicker (100-150 mu m diameter) SiC-based fibres produced by Textron
and B.P. Mechanical bend tests show that the fibres were significantly
stiffened by the addition of a CVD diamond layer of a few micrometres
thickness, giving a Young's modulus value close to that for natural d
iamond.