May Paul W, Zulkharnay Ramiz
School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci. 2025 May 8;383(2296):20230382. doi: 10.1098/rsta.2023.0382.
Nearly a quarter of a century ago, we wrote a review paper about the very new technology of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) of diamond thin films. We now update this review and bring the story up to date by describing the progress made-or not made-over the intervening years. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, there was enormous excitement about the plethora of applications that were suddenly possible now that diamonds could be fabricated in the form of thin films. Diamond was hailed as the ultimate semiconductor, and it was believed that the few remaining problems would be quickly solved, leading to a new 'diamond age' of electronics. In reality, however, difficulty in making large-area diamond wafers and the elusiveness of a useful -type dopant slowed progress substantially. Unsurprisingly, over the following decade, the enthusiasm and funding for diamonds faded, while competing materials forged ahead. But in the early 2010s, several new game-changing applications for diamonds were discovered, such as electrochemical electrodes, the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre defect that promised room-temperature quantum computers, and methods to grow large single-crystal gemstone-quality diamonds. These led to a resurgence in diamond research and a new hope that diamond might live up to its promise.This article is part of the theme issue 'Science into the next millennium: 25 years on'.
近四分之一个世纪前，我们撰写了一篇关于金刚石薄膜化学气相沉积（CVD）这项全新技术的综述文章。现在，我们更新这篇综述，通过描述这些年间取得的进展或未取得的进展，将故事呈现到最新情况。回溯到20世纪90年代和21世纪初，由于金刚石现在可以制成薄膜形式，大量突然变得可行的应用引发了人们极大的兴奋。金刚石被誉为终极半导体，人们相信剩下的几个问题将很快得到解决，从而开启电子学的新“金刚石时代”。然而，实际上，制造大面积金刚石晶圆的困难以及难以找到有用的p型掺杂剂，极大地减缓了进展。不出所料，在接下来的十年里，对金刚石的热情和资金投入逐渐消退，而其他竞争材料则取得了进展。但在2010年代初，人们发现了金刚石的几个改变游戏规则的新应用，比如电化学电极、有望实现室温量子计算机的氮空位（NV）中心缺陷，以及生长大单晶宝石级金刚石的方法。这些导致了金刚石研究的复兴，并带来了新的希望，即金刚石可能会不负众望。本文是主题为“科学进入下一个千年：25年后”系列文章的一部分。
