Diamond is the hardest of all natural materials. The hardness of any given material is usually determined by pressing a carefully shaped indenter onto a surface under a load, resulting in a permanent plastic deformation. The indenter must be at least as hard as the substance being indented; for measuring Read more…
Diamond is transparent from the UV (225 nm) to the far infrared. Only minor absorption bands exist resulting from two-phonon absorption between 2.5 and 6.5 µm. This makes diamond an ideal material for multispectral optical applications. Diamond’s optical properties are isotropic with an index of refraction of 2.4 in the Read more…
Diamond is unmatched as a thermal conductor. It is informative to compare the thermal conductivity of diamond to that of other materials with which it may be used or with which it may compete. Polycrystalline diamond films of good quality generally exhibit thermal conductivity in the direction of growth of Read more…
Diamond’s potential as an electronic material has become legendary by virtue of its wide band gap (5.5eV), high carrier mobility, breakdown field, saturation velocity, and thermal conductivity. If this potential can be realized, diamond is ideally suited as the material for devices which operate at high temperatures, voltages, power levels, Read more…