Diamond Crystals

Abstract

in 1978 and received a Ph.D. degree in 1983 and a D.Sc. degree in 1997 with a dissertation entitled "Growth and properties of diamond crystals". The main areas of his research activities are concerned with the experimental modeling of mineral-forming processes in the Earth's mantle and growth of diamond crystals at high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) conditions using the original BARS technique. Dr. Palyanov has authored or co-authored more than 170 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is a docent at the Geology and Geophysics Department of Novosibirsk State University. Dr. Palyanov was awarded with diplomas from the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation. He is a laureate of A.E. Fersman award of the Russian Academy of Sciences. vii Preface to "Diamond Crystals"Diamond is perhaps the most remarkable crystalline material created by either Nature or a human being. Being structurally and compositionally very simple, it nevertheless possesses an impressive range of extreme and outstanding properties superior to other materials. For this reason, diamond is frequently referred to as "the ultimate engineering material" and the number of evidence supporting this title has been constantly growing. Besides its importance as the technological material, diamond is the classical model object of fundamental research in solid-state physics, chemistry and engineering. It is difficult to overestimate the significance of diamond in the Earth sciences, where it serves as an invaluable source of information about the Earth's interiors. It is safe to say that diamond is truly an interdisciplinary subject. The editorial and research articles collected in this issue are intendent to highlight recent investigations and developments in diamond research related to the diverse problems of natural diamond genesis, diamond synthesis and growth using CVD and HPHT techniques, and the use of diamond in both traditional applications, such as mechanical machining of materials, and the new recently emerged areas, such as quantum technologies. The results presented in the contributions collected in this special issue clearly demonstrate that diamond occupies a very special place in modern science and technology.