Diamond gets harder, tougher, and more deformable

• Main Authors: Bo Xu, Yongjun Tian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: AIP Publishing LLC 2020-11-01
• Series: Matter and Radiation at Extremes
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0029519

Diamonds may not be forever, but research interest in diamond has never ebbed. Owing to its highly symmetric crystal structure and strong covalent C–C bonds, diamond possesses an exceptional combination of physical properties. Its hardness and thermal conductivity are the highest among covalent materials. It also has a large bandgap and electric breakdown field, as well as optical transparency over a wide range of wavelengths. All of these are essential for a wide range of applications in both industrial and scientific areas. Despite these outstanding advantages, however, diamond is extremely brittle, with inferior toughness and poor deformability. These shortcomings have caused undesired tool breakage and have imposed severe constraints on technological innovations. To surmount these intrinsic deficiencies, tremendous research effort has been dedicated to developing advanced diamond products, with great progress being achieved in the past few years.