Unusually high thermal conductivity in diamond films

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Abstract
Chemical‐vapor‐deposited (CVD) polycrystalline diamond films have recently been reported with a thermal conductivity that is only 25% less than that of high quality single‐crystal natural diamond. By studying a series of such films of various thicknesses grown under virtually identical conditions, we have discovered a significant (factor of four) through the thickness gradient in thermal conductivity. The observed gradient is attributed mainly to phonon scattering by the roughly cone‐shaped columnar microstructure. For 350 μm films, the material near the top (growth) surface has a conductivity of at least 21 W/cm °C, i.e., comparable to the best single crystals. This remarkable dependence of thermal conductivity on microstructure has important implications for thermal management of microelectronic devices using CVD diamond.

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