Buy Online: Demanding Optical Applications enabled by new CVD Diamond Material from Element Six
Single crystal CVD (Chemical Vapour Deposition) diamond suitable for demanding optical applications, particularly laser systems, is now available from Element Six. The material’s main feature is its low birefringence: with Dn of less than 10-5, it is the lowest birefringence CVD diamond material commercially available today.
The new synthetic material has been developed by Element Six Ltd using proprietary processes and opens up the possibility of exploiting the excellent optical and thermal properties of diamond in a consistently engineered material without compromising other aspects of device performance.
Diamond offers a number of properties that make it unique as an optical material, and enable applications that other window materials cannot address. In particular, the material is transparent over a very wide spectrum, with very low absorption coefficients at key laser frequencies, has a very high thermal conductivity enabling any heat absorbed to be dissipated, and a low thermal expansion coefficient, limiting any thermally generated strain, which can otherwise result in beam distortion or window failure.
The new low birefringence CVD diamond has application in a range of existing and novel laser applications where the diamond is used primarily for its thermal properties, removing heat from the lasing medium, but where losses resulting from birefringence in the diamond have to date been the limiting factor. Particular applications include the development of higher power compact laser sources such as VECSELs (Vertical External Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers) where the diamond resides within the laser cavity. This new diamond material also offers a route to increasing the range of the optical spectrum which is addressable by lasers, by working as a laser Raman medium which efficiently shifts the output frequency of a laser system.
Targeted development programme
Element Six has been able to achieve this exceptional performance through a development programme that has concentrated on three aspects of diamond product fabrication – material growth, carefully selected processing route and consistency of the final product.
It has been through a carefully controlled CVD growth process that Element Six has made an exceptional diamond material. Any defects in diamond, particularly extended defects such as dislocations result in strain, and this, in turn, gives rise to birefringence. Point defects and impurities can also result in deleterious optical absorption. Element Six has made considerable progress in controlling and reducing the dislocation density formed within the crystal lattice during the growth process. Techniques have also been developed to make a bulk CVD diamond material of very high purity and optical transparency. When this material is fabricated into optical components, the carefully optimised processing route ensures that their performance is not reduced by surface damage introduced during the processing. Thus, the CVD technique provides a route to a consistent engineered optical material with unique properties that can now be made available in large volume.
The largest CVD diamond plates typically available are about 10 mm laterally with thicknesses in the range of 0.3 – 1.5 mm, although materials outside this range can be supplied for volume customers. Element Six has considerable expertise in the development and supply of diamond-based optical components for applications as diverse as the latest generation of high power welding and cutting laser systems and high energy physics research.
Element Six is the world’s leading supplier of high quality supermaterials used throughout manufacturing industry for a wide range of applications. It is the frontrunner in the development of synthetic diamond and novel engineering materials that are being used in industrial applications that span, for example optical, mechanical, thermal, electronic, automotive, telecommunications and medical industries. With a turnover of more than US$500m and almost 4,000 employees, Element Six has established production and processing plants in China, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, South Africa, Ukraine and the UK supported by a global distribution network.
For more information contact:
Henk G.M.de Wit
General Manager
Element Six B.V.
De Nieuwe Erven 2
5431NT Cuijk, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 485395741
Fax: +31 485316104
Email: henk.dewit@e6.com
www.e6cvd.com