CVD-diamonds shine brightly. Part 2: Diamond, space and related items

Diamonds are forever and can change the heart-beat of most of the people dramatically if they can catch a presious gem. But, to the scientist, diamond is impressive because of its sum of extreme properties. Diamond is the hardest available material, and has the highest known thermal conductivity. It is chemically and biologically inert and wear resistant, electrically insulating and optically transparent over a wide range (UV to FIR), and, if doped, is a high temperature semiconductor with wide band-gap. Therefore, it is no surprise that diamonds finds use in many technological applications, e.g. as an abrasive, as inserts and wear-resistant coatings for cutting tools, as a heat spreader, but also as sensors, actuators and electronics. Due to the high price of natural diamond (depending in an exponential way on size, shape and purity) there is a long running quest for routes to synthesise diamond artificially. The world-wide interest in diamond ...