Optical, thermal and mechanical properties of CVD diamond

The exceptional combination of mechanical, thermal, chemical and optical pr operties of diamond make this material an ideal choice for numerous applica tions in which materials are required to operate in adverse environments ex posed to abrasion or chemical attack, or in situations requiring the dissip ation of extreme levels of power, such as windows for high power lasers. Pr ogress in the synthesis and processing of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) diamond achieved at De Beer(1) Industrial Diamond Division (Debid) has open ed many of these applications by bringing to the market a diamond material that is available in large areas, in industrial quantities and with the hig h quality and reproducible properties needed to meet the demanding requirem ents of the industry. This paper will review the properties of the differen t CVD diamond material grades used in optical, thermal and mechanical appli cations. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.