Review of High Technology Applications of CVD Diamond

by Ricardo Sussmann (De Beers Industrial Diamonds (UK) Ltd., Charters, Sunninghill, Ascot, Berkshire SL59PX, UK)

Tuesday 7 Mar 2000, 09:00 → 10:00 Europe/Zurich

CERN

Because of its remarkable range of physical and chemical properties, diamond is a unique material that can provide engineering solutions in applications where other materials have proven to be unsuitable. The very considerable advances in CVD diamond synthesis and processing technology achieved in recent years have made available to end-users a wide range of new diamond materials which have properties tailored to specific application sectors. This has enabled novel uses for diamond in diverse and challenging fields of technology. This presentation will review some of these applications and highlight how these have increased our understanding of some basic properties of diamond tested under extreme conditions hitherto not available. Applications to be reviewed include optical windows for high power CO2 lasers, windows for megawatt power microwave beams and radiation-hard electronic detectors for high-energy particles, heavy ions or X-ray detection.