Infrared Raman scattering as a sensitive probe for the thermal conductivity of chemical vapor deposited diamond films

The infrared Raman spectrum of chemical vapor deposited (CVD) diamond films has been correlated with the in-plane thermal conductivity of the films. The scattering strength of the 1332 cm(exp -1) zone-center phonon line of diamond, measured relative to the intensity of the nondiamond carbon phase, was found to increase strongly with increasing thermal conductivity. A good correlation between these two properties was found even for the highest quality CVD diamond films with peak thermal conductivities up to 54 W/cm K. The dependence of the peak thermal conductivity on the intensity of the 1332 cm(exp -1) phonon line normalized to the scattering strength of the nondiamond carbon phase can be described by a power law with an exponent of 0.5.