Diamond CVD - a status report

An intensive world-wide R and D activity on diamond CVD started around the mid80's, obviously initiated by several papers published by a group of researchers at the Japanese National Institute of Research in Inorganic Materials, . Nevertheless the first successful growth of the diamond phase from gaseous precursors under conditions of metastability was achieved much earlier, most probably in winter 1952/53 by W.G. Eversole at the Union Carbide Corporation, thus even predating the first high-pressure synthesis at the General Electric Company. In spite of the confirmation of Eversole's results by Angus' and Deryagin's groups in the USA and the former USSR, resp., the possibility to grow diamond using relatively cheap equipment seemingly was not taken notice of by the general scientific community until about one decade ago. Meanwhile the diamond CVD technology has developed to an extent, which makes an exhausting description on a few pages impossible. This review will therefore concentrat e exemplarily on a selection of topics. After a short discussion of the diamond formation mechanism, based on a simplified model of surface processes published recently, the growth of textured and heteroepitaxial diamond films will be presented. Diamond coating of cutting tools, which has been one of the major targets of applicationoriented work on CVD diamond, and an estimation of the future development of diamond deposition costs will finally be treated.