At&t Bell Laboratories

At+t Corp.

John E Graebner

Sungho Jin

Raymond Wolfe

Mark T McCormack

Avishay Katz

William C Dautremont-Smith

A technique that involves selective removal of material from a surface of a polycrystalline diamond (polyD) film such that a non-planar surface results. Exemplarily the technique is used to form polyD optical elements, e.g., convex or concave lenses, or Fresnel lenses, including arrays of such lenses. The technique involves maintaining on appropriately shaped hot template body in intimate contact with a polyD surface for a time (e.g., in the range 1-1000 hours) sufficient to result in formation of the desired feature in the polyD surface. The template body involves a rare earth metal (La and Ce are preferred), Mn and/or Fe, and the temperature is below the melting temperature of the template body. Removal of 'spent' template material by, e.g., chemical etching and finishing of the polyD feature, e.g., by laser ablation and/or polishing, are contemplated.

Method of shaping polycrystalline diamond

A diamond body, such as a CVD diamond film, is etched by immersion of the body in a molten or partially molten metal, such as the rare earth metal La or Ce. While the body is being etched, various portions of a major surface of the body can be protected for various time durations by masks against the etching--whereby, after dicing the body, the resulting dies can be used as submounts for lasers with feedback.

Etching a diamond body with a molten or partially molten metal

A diamond body, such as a CVD diamond film, is thinned by placing the body--at an elevated temperature and under pressure--in contact with a molten or partially molten alloy of a rare earth metal and a metallic impurity that lowers the melting point of the rare earth metal. Typically, the rare earth metal is cerium and the impurity is nickel. The pressure is typically less than approximately 0.2 MPa (Mega Pascal), preferably less than approximately 0.02 MPa, and the temperature is within a range whose lower limit is approximately 100 C. degrees below the melting point of the alloy of the rare earth plus impurity metal.

Thinning a diamond body by means of molten rare-earth-containing alloys

In order to measure the in-plane thermal conductivity of a sample plate, the plate is placed in a prefabricated device containing (1) a pair of thermocouples, (2) a source of heat flow into the plate, (3) a heat sink of the heat flow having an open cavity, (4) a taut membrane, on which the source of heat flow and the thermocouples are bonded, located on the resilient filling, (5) a resilient filling of thermally insulating material located underneath the membrane, in the cavity of the heat sink, and (6) a thermally insulating medium covering the plate and exerting a compressive force on it.

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New York, NY, United States of America

John E Graebner