Editorial: The Physics of Diamond and its Technological Applications

Editorial on Research Topic, The Physics of Diamond and its Technological Applications (Open Access Review Frontiers in Physics) About this Topic: Since the 90s diamond has been a particularly key material, owing to its intrinsic appealing properties and the availability of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) growth techniques. Since then it has been found use as a base material for radiation detection, and both, optical and electronic applications. ... Since the 90s diamond has been a particularly key material, owing to its intrinsic appealing properties and the availability of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) growth techniques. Since then it has been found use as a base material for radiation detection, and both, optical and electronic applications. However, the naturally defective nature of the polycrystalline growth and the limited area of the homoepitaxially grown material have so far prevented an industrial scale-up of diamond devices and the consequent lowering of the cost of synthetic high-quality diamond samples. The field has remained until present of niche application. Nevertheless, there has been significant progress in the growth techniques and material engineering of diamond in recent years. Heteroepitaxial growth of wafer-size material at reasonable cost points to the availability of quasi-monocrystalline material in larger sizes. There is increased activity in the research of diamond doping worldwide, in view of superior high power, high frequency devices, possibly operating above room temperature. Diamond has been chosen as best material for radiation tolerant time-resolved particle detection. It is more and more applied to neutron detection and, in general, in hostile environments. In addition, diamond is the main material for newly emerging quantum technologies, due to the high number and appealing properties of the observed color centers. Natural diamond has also been the main material for clinical radiation dosimetry for a long time. It has been gradually replaced by CVD monocrystalline material over the past several years. Now the availability of heteroepitaxial wafers opens the way to pixel sensors that can be applied to real time small-field dosimetry. All these devices are implemented by recent techniques of growth, laser and ion beam engineering. This Research Topic will serve as an up-to-date review of recent progress in understanding the diamond growth, engineering and interaction with radiation, building on the many other comprehensive and excellent reviews published in the past