Background and History to the Bristol CVD Diamond Group
Bristol University, and in particular the Physics Department, has had an interest in single crystal diamond research for around 30 years. But Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) diamond research began at Bristol in 1991, with a collaboration between the Chemistry and Aerospace Engineering Departments in a DTI-funded project to investigate diamond films for Aerospace applications. This has expanded rapidly, and now Bristol is one of the top centres for CVD diamond research in the UK, with the effort being split among various departments within the University. The diamond films are grown in the Chemistry Department. The mechanical properties (stiffness, etc) of the deposited films are tested in the Mechanical Engineering Dept, whilst more detailed structural analysis (TEM, EELS) is performed by the Physics Department and Interface Analysis Centre.
Funding over the years has been from various sources, both governmental and industrial, including the EPSRC, DERA (Farnborough), the Royal Society, Arima Corporation (Taiwan), Smiths Industries and Element Six.