New forms of carbon in scientific instrumentation

Applications in the development of scientific instrumentation of some of th e new forms of carbon are discussed in this work. A short revision is prese nted of the remaining technical problems of the applications of diamond thi n films as active semiconductor elements; heat sinks; X-ray, UV and particl e detectors; surface acoustic wave devices, etc. Some advances in the impro vement of the surface quality and textural design of diamond films are also presented. On the other hand, the possible implications of carbon nanotube s in scientific instrumentation are also discussed mainly for the developme nt of electronic nanodevices. Finally, other promising applications of carb on nanotubes as nanotips for atomic force and scanning tunneling microscopi es, as well as nano host-structures for the synthesis of metallic carbide a nd nitride nanowires are also presented.