Determination of thermal conductivity of CVD diamond films via photoacoustic measurements

A novel method of determination of polycrystalline diamond films’ thermoconductive properties using the photoacoustic effect is proposed. By this method, we studied the diamond films grown on silicon substrates using chemical vapor deposition technique. A value of thermal conductivity obtained for the films was less than half that for diamond single crystal. The decrease of thermal conductivity, as well as characteristic features of optical properties of the films, is explained by the presence of a large amount of intercrystallite boundaries and other structure defects and admixures detected using Raman and photoluminescent spectroscopies. Received: 22 October 1998 / Accepted: 27 January 1999 / Published online: 28 April 1999