Microscopic measurements of the local heat conduction in polycrystalline diamond films

It is generally known that the microstructure of polycrystalline CVD diamond samples has a strong impact on their thermal properties. Despite the fact that nowadays layers can be deposited with macroscopic thermal conductivities or diffusivities rivalling those of type II natural diamonds, the samples are highly thermally inhomogeneous and sometimes show local values differing by up to two orders of magnitude. To examine these phenomena more closely, we present a microscopic photo thermal measuring method for the local thermal diffusivity. We demonstrate the feasibility of diffusivity measurements at a sample surface of ca. 20 × 20 μm. We show results obtained on a reference sample of known diffusivity and present measurements on a small single crystal diamond, a local measurement at the substrate side of a CVD diamond layer, and a measurement of the diffusivity inside a microcrystal at the growth side of a CVD diamond layer.