CVD diamond possesses certain attractive electrochemical properties inter alia low background current, broad potential window, chemical inertness and resistance to electrocorrosion and fouling. As a consequence its use in various areas of electrochemistry, such as electrochemical sensing, wastewater treatment and electrocatalysis is being explored. Unfortunately, alongside these attractive features, bare CVD diamond electrodes, in common with all other electrode materials, cannot be effectively applied in all electrochemical systems of interest, since for example it may not display useful electrochemical activity for the redox process of interest. In these circumstances it may be possible to modify the electrode by addition of other chemical species to the surface, to introduce the relevant activity. One of the main aims of this thesis was therefore to investigate the properties of certain chemical modifications to the diamond electrode surface. A second aim was also to explore for the first time the use of a practically useful form of single crystal diamond, so-called heteroepitaxial diamond, in electrochemistry. The diamond electrodes used were boron-doped material grown by chemical vapour deposition. A range of electrochemical methods, including especially cyclic voltammetry, square-wave voltammetry, impedance spectroscopy and scanning electrochemical microscopy, were used to characterise electrode properties. Other physical methods employed included scanning electron and atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering techniques. The electrochemical properties of heteroepitaxial single crystal diamond were explored and compared to polycrystalline counterparts. The single crystal diamond electrode was found to show superior properties in terms of wide potential window, low background current and homogeneous activity across the electrode surface, coupled with resistance to fouling. Heterogenous electron transfer rate constants were found to be lower than normally found on polycrystalline diamond; this was attributed to reduced density of states and absence of functional groups. An electrochemical route to the preparation of diamond electrodes, modified by PrOx@Pt core-shell particles was demonstrated. It was observed that these electrode modifiers were far less susceptible to poisoning than bare Pt nanoparticles when used in the electrochemical oxidation of methanol. It was also shown that diamond electrodes with these core-shell particles deposited on them, displayed useful activity for the electrochemical oxidation of nitric oxide. The presence of the PrOx layer was shown to impart useful selectivity against the oxidation of interfering compounds such as nitrite and ascorbic acid, without the loss of sensitivity which normally occurs if nafion coatings are used instead. Basic electrochemical characterisation of the PrOx coating showed that the layer was chemically active and did not serve as a simple blocking layer when deposited on the electrode. The activity of Pt modified diamond electrodes for the oxidation of nitrite species was also studied. It was also shown that the addition of carbon black to a diamond electrode resulted in much enhanced electrochemical properties in the detection of riboflavin.

Les propriétés physiques et chimiques exceptionnelles du matériau diamant ont suscité l'intérêt des chercheurs pour le développement d'applications industrielles, comme par exemple dans les domaines de la dissipation thermique ou de l'électronique de puissance. En particulier, les propriétés mécaniques remarquables de ce matériau peuvent être exploitées avantageusement pour la conception de résonateurs MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems). Même si certains dispositifs MEMS à base de diamant avaient été décrits dans la littérature, les propriétés mécaniques de ce matériau n'avaient jamais été associées à ses propriétés chimiques pour la réalisation de transducteurs chimiques ou biochimiques à base de résonateurs MEMS. Ainsi, l'objectif cette thèse a été de démontrer l'intérêt de ce matériau innovant pour la fabrication de ces capteurs. Les MEMS offrent la possibilité de faire de la détection en temps réel de manière directe (sans marqueur), rapide et sensible, sur de faibles quantités d'analytes. De plus ils permettent d'adresser des cibles non électro-actives qui ne peuvent pas être détectées par des capteurs électrochimiques. Dans cette étude, nous avons développé dans un premier temps des procédés de micro-structuration spécifiques du diamant. Ces procédés entièrement compatibles avec des techniques de salle blanche ont permis d'aboutir à la réalisation de nombreux transducteurs à base de micro-leviers en diamant sur des substrats en silicium de 4 pouces. De plus les approches développées permettent d'éviter la gravure fastidieuse du matériau diamant. Leur caractérisation mécanique en régime dynamique a permis de caractériser le module d'Young E du matériau diamant synthétisé en fonction des conditions de croissance. Dans le meilleur cas une valeur de E très élevée de l'ordre de 1100 GPa a été obtenue, ce qui est très proche de la valeur du diamant monocristallin (1200GPa). Par ailleurs, nous avons pu vérifier que les propriétés de résonance (fréquence de résonance et facteur de qualité) des structures en diamant réalisées étaient supérieures à celles de structures identiques en silicium. En particulier, cela rend ces résonateurs plus aptes à être exploités en milieux liquides. Nous avons montré que dans de tels milieux les micro-leviers en diamant étaient très peu sensibles à une variation massique. En revanche leur sensibilité à une variation de masse volumique du liquide est de l'ordre de 3Hz.kg-1.m3 et donc significative. Par ailleurs, en fonctionnalisant des micro-leviers en diamant par de l'acide caproïque, nous avons mis en évidence que des variations de densité de charges à la surface des micro-leviers pouvaient induire des variations de fréquence de résonance de plusieurs dizaines de Hz dans le cas de structures vibrant à quelques kHz. Ceci a permis de mettre en évidence la grande sensibilité de nos transducteurs en diamant à des interactions moléculaires. Dans ce contexte nous avons pu réaliser un capteur d'ADN permettant la reconnaissance spécifique en temps réel de brins d'ADN cibles de 24 paires de bases sans marqueur. En parallèle de ces travaux, des structures d'actionnement et de lecture ont été intégrées et évalué sur des dispositifs résonants à base de diamant. Ceci a permis de les interfacer à un premier prototype de système d'acquisition électronique portable dédié réalisé au cours de cette thèse / Diamond material is very promising for future technological applications due to its outstanding physical and chemical properties. In particular, its remarkable mechanical features may be used advantageously for MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) devices development. However, even though several diamond-based MEMS devices have been reported in the literature, the mechanical properties of this material have never been combined to its chemical properties for developing resonating MEMS-based biochemical transducers. Thus, the purpose of this study was to demonstrate the interest of such diamond transducers for chemical or biochemical sensing applications. MEMS devices are indeed attractive because they allow fast, label free and sensitive detection in real time on small volumes due to their miniaturized size. Moreover they offer the possibility to address non electroactive target species which are undetectable using classical electrochemical methods. In this study, we developed specific clean room compatible processes for diamond micro-structuring. The bottom-up approaches undertaken here were based on diamond patterns growth. Hence they avoid time consuming diamond etching steps. These processes allowed fabricating several diamond micro-cantilever transducers over 4-inches substrates. The mechanical characterization of the cantilevers in oscillating regime was performed in order to extract the material Young's modulus E when the structures were made of different polycrystalline diamond qualities. In the best case, a value of E as high as 1100 GPa and very close to the Young's modulus of monocrystalline diamond (1200 GPa) was achieved. In parallel, we verified that both cantilevers resonance frequency and Q-factor were significantly higher than those of identical silicon structures (on average twice higher). This makes diamond mechanical structures more suitable for use in liquid media. In such damping media a very poor sensitivity to mass changes was determined. Nevertheless, their sensitivity to liquid density changes was found to be significant (-3Hz.kg-1.m3). More importantly, by functionalizing diamond micro-cantilevers with caproic acid, an evidence of these transducers high sensitivity to surface molecular interactions was shown. Especially, when charge density variations occurs several tens Hz changes were measured on kHz-range oscillating cantilevers. In this context, a label free DNA sensor was achieved and allowed the specific detection of 24-mer target DNA in real time. In parallel to this work, actuation and boron doped diamond-based readout gauges were integrated to the resonant cantilevers and characterized. They allowed interfacing the cantilevers to a dedicated acquisition electronic prototype developed in the course of this study

<p>Due to its close tissue-equivalence, high radiation sensitivity, dose and dose-rate linearity, diamond is a very promising detector for radiation therapy applications. The present thesis focuses on the development of a chemical vapour deposited (CVD) diamond detector with special attention on the arrangement of the electrodes and encapsulation having minimal influence on the measured signal. Several prototype detectors were designed by using CVD-diamond substrates with attached silver electrodes.</p><p>Interface effects in the electrode-diamond-electrode structure are investigated using the Monte Carlo (MC) code PENELOPE. The studies cover a wide range of electrode and diamond thicknesses, electrode materials and photon beam energies. An appreciable enhancement of the absorbed dose to diamond was found for high-Z electrodes. The influence of the electrodes diminishes with decreasing atomic number difference and layer thickness, so that from this point of view thin graphite electrodes would be ideal. The effect of encapsulation, cable and electrical connections on the detector response is also addressed employing MC techniques. For Co-60, 6 and 18 MV photon beam qualities it is shown that the prototypes exhibit energy and directional dependence of about 3% and 2%, respectively. By modifying the geometry and using graphite electrodes the dependencies are reduced to 1%.</p><p>Although experimental studies disclose some limitations of the prototypes (high leakage current, priming effect and slow signal stabilisation), diamonds of higher quality, suitable for dosimetry, can be produced with better-controlled CVD process. With good crystals and a well-designed encapsulation, the CVD-diamond detector could become competitive for routine dosimetry. It is then important for correct dose determination to use a collision stopping power for diamond incorporating proper mean excitation energy and density-effect corrections. A new mean excitation energy of 88 eV has been calculated.</p>

Due to its close tissue-equivalence, high radiation sensitivity, dose and dose-rate linearity, diamond is a very promising detector for radiation therapy applications. The present thesis focuses on the development of a chemical vapour deposited (CVD) diamond detector with special attention on the arrangement of the electrodes and encapsulation having minimal influence on the measured signal. Several prototype detectors were designed by using CVD-diamond substrates with attached silver electrodes. Interface effects in the electrode-diamond-electrode structure are investigated using the Monte Carlo (MC) code PENELOPE. The studies cover a wide range of electrode and diamond thicknesses, electrode materials and photon beam energies. An appreciable enhancement of the absorbed dose to diamond was found for high-Z electrodes. The influence of the electrodes diminishes with decreasing atomic number difference and layer thickness, so that from this point of view thin graphite electrodes would be ideal. The effect of encapsulation, cable and electrical connections on the detector response is also addressed employing MC techniques. For Co-60, 6 and 18 MV photon beam qualities it is shown that the prototypes exhibit energy and directional dependence of about 3% and 2%, respectively. By modifying the geometry and using graphite electrodes the dependencies are reduced to 1%. Although experimental studies disclose some limitations of the prototypes (high leakage current, priming effect and slow signal stabilisation), diamonds of higher quality, suitable for dosimetry, can be produced with better-controlled CVD process. With good crystals and a well-designed encapsulation, the CVD-diamond detector could become competitive for routine dosimetry. It is then important for correct dose determination to use a collision stopping power for diamond incorporating proper mean excitation energy and density-effect corrections. A new mean excitation energy of 88 eV has been calculated.

This thesis details an investigation of the suitability of commercially-available single crystal and polycrystalline diamond films made via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) that were not studied previously for use in radiotherapy dosimetry. Novel sandwich-type detectors were designed and constructed to investigate the dosimetric response of diamond films under clinical conditions. Relatively inexpensive diamond films were obtained from three manufacturers: Diamonex, Diamond Materials GmbH and Element Six. Spectrophotometry, Raman spectroscopy and bulk conductivity studies were used to characterize these films and correlate crystalline quality with detector performance. Novel detectors were designed and constructed to investigate detectors under clinical conditions, including Perspex encapsulations and PCBs to minimize fluence perturbations. The dosimetric response of these diamond detectors was examined using a 6 MV beam from a Varian Clinac 600C linear accelerator. Diamond detectors were evaluated by measuring a number of response characteristics. Polycrystalline CVD diamond films from Diamonex (100, 200, 400-μm thicknesses) were considered unsuitable for dosimetric applications due to their lack of stability, low sensitivity, high leakage currents, high priming dose and dependence on dose rate. High-quality polycrystalline diamond films from Diamond Materials (100, 200, 400-μm thicknesses) displayed characteristics that varied with film thickness. A 100-μm film featured slow response dynamics and high priming doses. Thicker films featured suitable dosimetric characteristics, e.g. negligible leakage currents, low priming doses, fast response dynamics and good sensitivity with small sensitive volumes. Element Six single crystal CVD diamond films (500-μm thicknesses) with small sensitive volumes (0.39 mm³) exhibited suitable characteristics for dosimetry. These films showed negligible leakage currents (< 1.25 pA), low priming doses (1–10 Gy), quick response dynamics, high sensitivity (47–230 nC Gy⁻¹) and were weakly dependent on dose rate and directional dependence (±1%). A relatively inexpensive single crystal CVD diamond film from Element Six that exhibited high sensitivity (230 nC Gy⁻¹ at 0.5 V μm⁻¹), amongst other favourable characteristics, was selected for further analyses. An appropriate operating voltage was determined before further clinically relevant measurements could be conducted. This included how changes in an applied electric field affected detector response, and determined whether an optimal operating voltage could be realized within the parameters of conventional instrumentation used in radiation therapy. The results of this study indicated a preference towards using 62.5 V (at ~0.13 V μm⁻¹) out of a range of 30.8–248.0 V for temporal response as required for modulated beams due to its minimal rise time (2 s) and fall time (2 s) yet sufficient sensitivity (37 nC Gy⁻¹) and weak dependence on polarity (±1.5%). Investigations were then performed on the same diamond detector to evaluate its performance under more clinically relevant conditions. Repeatability experiments revealed a temporary loss in sensitivity due to charge detrapping effects following irradiation, which was modelled to make corrections that improved short-term precision. It was shown that this detector could statistically distinguish between dose values separated by a single Monitor Unit, which corresponded to 0.77 cGy. Dose rate dependence was observed when using low, fixed doses in contrast to using stabilized currents and higher doses. Depth dose measurements using this detector compared well with ion chambers and diode dosimeters. Comparisons of initial measurements with values in the literature indicate encouraging results for fields sizes < 4 x 4 cm², but further measurements and comparisons with Monte Carlo calculations are required. Using this detector to make off-axis measurements in the edge-on orientation reduced perturbation of the beam due to its sandwich configuration and thin 150 nm Ag contacts. This diamond detector was found to be suitable for routine dosimetry with conventional radiotherapy instrumentation with a materials cost of < NZ$200.

This thesis documents research done for a transient hot wire system that will be used in future thermal conductivity measurements of molten salts. Research done with molten salts have been limited because of erroneous measurement capabilities, but the current research strives to introduce a new technique to accurately record thermal conductivity over a wide range of temperatures. This work follows up on past transient hot wire researchers whose designs and tests produced an instrument that can measure the thermal conductivity of molten metals up to 750 K. The transient hot wire (THW) technique has been selected to be used in molten salt to derive thermal conductivity values. While running a THW test in molten salts is outside the scope of this thesis, a modular system has been created for the use of running transient hot wire test that allows for a robust and repeatable testing. A PEGDA/galinstan sensor is used for the validation of the system. A robust GUI has been created to automate the experimental procedure in a glovebox environment. The inverse finite element method has been paired with a non linear fit script to optimize calculations and reduce run times. Test have been done to determine the thermal conductivity of PEGDA. The overall uncertainty of the thermal conductivity measured with the PEGDA sensor is estimated to be ±5% at a 95% confidence level. With a THW system implemented and validated a sensor has been designed to work in molten salts. A model has been created in two separate FEA programs to validate design changes and material properties. The sensor is made up of a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond substrate and tungsten wires to overcome corrosion and heat challenges introduced when measuring molten salts. New manufacturing processes have been designed to allow the technique to use these materials in the THW sensor design. The selected material properties of the sensor and extensive finite element work have laid down the ground work for future experimentation and understanding of the thermal properties of molten salts. It is predicted that the CVD diamond (carbide) apparatus design will use the THW techniques to operate with an estimated accuracy of ±3% over a wide range of temperatures, from ambient up to 1200 K. Manufacturing of the diamond-tungsten sensor have proven the viability of depositing tungsten wire onto CVD diamond and growing a secondary layer of CVD diamond over the tungsten wire.

This thesis is devoted to the development of nano-focusing refractive optics for high energy X-rays using planar microelectronic technology. The availability of such optics is the key for the exploitation of high brilliance third and fourth generation X-ray sources. Advancements in the quality of optics available are commensurate with advancements in the fabrication technology. The fabrication process directly influences the quality and performance, so must be understood and controlled. In the first part of this thesis, the development of high aspect ratio Si kinoform lenses is examined. It is shown that control of the re-entrance angle is critical for successful fabrication; in fact, a large re-entrance angle can destroy the lens during the fabrication process. Through an etch study, it was found that as aspect ratio increases, control of the re-entrance angle becomes harder. To control the re-entrance angle for very high aspect ratios, a novel approach based on sacrificial structures was proposed and initial results presented. The second part is dedicated to an experimental study of refractive lenses made from diamond. Due to its low atomic number, relatively high density and very high thermal conductivity, diamond is one of the most desirable lens materials for refractive X-ray optics. However, due to its extreme hardness, it is very difficult to structure into a form suitable for X-ray lenses. To overcome this difficulty a Si moulding technique was used and focusing down to a 400 nm wide spot was achieved. Several obstacles were encountered and successfully overcome. The hardest obstacle was to obtain selective void-free filling in the Si moulds. Several methods were investigated. A method based on a sacrificial oxide layer and an Electrostatic Self-Assembly process was found to be the most useful. The approach discovered in this thesis is not limited to X-ray lenses, but can be applied to a wide variety of high aspect ratio MEMS requiring void-free diamond filling and smooth sidewalls.

L'augmentation de la densité de puissance des convertisseurs d'énergie électrique nécessite une gestion thermique toujours plus performante. La thermique devient même l'élément dimensionnant de ces convertisseurs et est au centre des préoccupations des concepteurs. Le diamant présente des propriétés physico-chimiques exceptionnelles particulièrement adaptées à la gestion thermique des composants semi-conducteurs de l'électronique de puissance. C'est en effet le meilleur matériau isolant et conducteur thermique connu à ce jour. La possibilité de réaliser du diamant polycristallin de manière reproductible par synthèse CVD ouvre aujourd'hui à ce matériau un grand champ d'applications industrielles. Nous avons étudié les potentialités d'applications au domaine particulier de l'électronique de puissance. Nous avons tout d'abord développé une plateforme de simulation COMSOL qui nous permette d'évaluer différentes structures pour optimiser le système de refroidissement des composants d'électronique de puissance. Nous avons alors étudié deux solutions, l'utilisation d'un substrat diamant épais pour reporter les composants ou le dépôt direct d'une fine couche de passivation sur les composants en fin de fabrication. Nous avons ainsi développé une structure à substrat diamant et micropoteaux en cuivre qui permet d'extraire jusqu'à 800 W/cm² sous le composant pour un échauffement de 120°C. Cette structure a été réalisée technologiquement pour valider toute la démarche de simulation et conception. Ce prototype propose des performances particulièrement intéressantes pour l'intégration des convertisseurs d'électronique de puissance à haute densité de puissance. Nous avons également étudié la passivation des composants avec du diamant CVD en lieu et place du SiO2. L'intérêt d'une telle passivation est démontré en simulation et les différentes étapes de la réalisation technologique sont étudiées. Cette dernière partie met en évidence des difficultés qu'il faudra lever si l'on souhaite utiliser le diamant comme couche de passivation / The heat transfer is a major obstacle that limits the generalization of the power electronics. During recent years, components have higher performance and smaller size thanks to technological advances in electronic. However, the maximum operation temperature of silicon components has not changed for years. A lot of problems will appear due to the thermal limitation. Thus, electronic circuit design must be accompanied by a thermal study to validate the safe operation. The diamond has outstanding properties. It has several exceptional physical and chemical characteristics. This material is very interesting in plenty of application domains, such as electronics, mechanics, optics and telecommunications. This is the best material for electrical insulators (10MV.cm-1) and thermal conductors (2000W.m-1.K-1, five times more than copper). Nevertheless, the coefficient of thermal expansion of diamond is very close to that of silicon. These properties are particularly interesting in elaborating highly efficient thermal management systems in power electronics domain. In this study, we analyzed and quantified the advantages of the insertion of CVD diamond layer in the innovative thermal management assemblies. We also developed a specific model (We increased a layer of copper micro-pillars on the backside of the diamond substrate) to simulate the working environment of the component. In the simulation, we compared the use of a traditional substrate (AlN) with that of the diamond CVD one in order to confirm that using the diamond substrate reduced thermal resistance. By using MEMS micro-technology, the cooling performance of this structure has been greatly improved. This structure can achieve power dissipation more than 800W/cm². Using CVD diamond for efficient cooling of power devices could be a promising solution and is very interesting in embedded systems. This achievement in temperature range allows designers to increase the power density of system without concerning of heat dissipation and/or greatly extends the lifetime of the device. We also studied the passivation with CVD diamond instead of SiO2

Um método original para a fabricação de microbocais de diamante com perfil convergente-divergente foi desenvolvido neste trabalho. O método de fabricação desenvolvido utiliza deposição de diamante policristalino sobre moldes que posteriormente são removidos. Os moldes utilizados são fios de tungstênio submetidos a um processo de corrosão eletrolítica para gerar o perfil convergente-divergente de bocal. O microbocal de diamante foi fabricado para ser utilizado como controlador e medidor passivo de vazão de fluidos, quando operando em condições críticas de escoamento. Testes de vazão de gás foram realizados, utilizando os microdispositivos fabricados, para determinar os parâmetros de escoamento necessários para a utilização dos microdispositivos como controladores e medidores de vazão de gás. Os parâmetros críticos de escoamento, a saber, a vazão mássica crítica, a razão crítica de pressão e a vazão volumétrica crítica, bem cmo a faixa do número de Reynolds do escoamento e o coeficiente de descarga, foram determinados para todos os microdispositivos. A faixa de variação do número de Reynolds dos escoamentos obtidos foi de 1x10 POT.3-7x10 POT.4. Por exemplo, o microbocal de diamante com o menor diâmetro de garganta (16+/-1)x10mum apresentou vazão mássica crítica de (0,344+006)g/min, vazão volumétrica crítica de (314+/-5)cm POT.3/min e coeficiente de descarga de (1,27+/-0,19). Assim, foram fabricados com sucesso microbobais de diamante com perfil convergente-divergente e foram determinados os parâmetros críticos de escoamento que possibilitam a estes microbocais atuarem como controladores e medidores passsivos de baixo vazão de gás. / In this work an original method for the fabrication of diamond micronozzles with converget-divergent profile is presented. The method uses the deposition of polycrystalline diamond over a mold, which is subsequently removed. The referred molds are tungsten wires patterned by means of an electrolytic etching procedure in a way that the divergent-convergent profile is generated. The main motivation for producing such micronozzles is its application as passive flow controllers and flow meters elements when operating under critical flow conditions. The micronozzles produced here were tested in order to determine the critical flow parameters that are necessary for its operation, as passive flow controllers and flow meters elements. The critical flow parameters (critical mass flow rate, critical pressure ratio and critical volumetric flow rate), the Reynolds number range and the discharge coefficient were determined for all the microdevices produced. The Reynolds number for the microdevices was found to be in the range of 1x10 POT.3-7x10 POT.4. For instance, the diamond micronozzle with smaller throat diameter, (16+/-1)x10mum, presented critical mass flow rate of (0,344+0,006)g/min, critical volumetric flow rate of (314+/-5)cm POT.3/min and discharge coefficient of (1,27+/-0,19). Therefore, diamond micronozzles were successfully fabricated with convergent-divergent profile and the critical flow parameters necessary for its operation, as passive flow controllers and flow meters elements, were determined.

Diamond is a promising material for high-power, high-frequency and high- temperature electronics applications, where its outstanding physical properties can be fully exploited. It exhibits an extremely high bandgap, very high carrier mobilities, high breakdown field strength, and the highest thermal conductivity of any wide bandgap material. It is therefore an outstanding candidate for the fastest switching, the highest power density, and the most efficient electronic devices obtainable, with applications in the RF power, automotive and aerospace industries. Lightweight diamond devices, capable of high temperature operation in harsh environments, could also be used in radiation detectors and particle physics applications where no other semiconductor devices would survive. The high defect and impurity concentration in natural diamond or high-pressure-high-temperature (HPHT) diamond substrates has made it difficult to obtain reliable results when studying the electronic properties of diamond. However, progress in the growth of high purity Single Crystal Chemical Vapor Deposited (SC-CVD) diamond has opened the perspective of applications under such extreme conditions based on this type of synthetic diamond. Despite the improvements, there are still many open questions. This work will focus on the electrical characterization of SC-CVD diamond by different measurement techniques such as internal photo-emission, I-V, C-V, Hall measurements and in particular, Time-of-Flight (ToF) carrier drift velocity measurements. With these mentioned techniques, some important properties of diamond such as drift mobilities, lateral carrier transit velocities, compensation ratio and Schottky barrier heights have been investigated. Low compensation ratios (ND/NA) &lt; 10-4 have been achieved in boron-doped diamond and a drift mobility of about 860 cm2/Vs for the hole transit near the surface in a lateral ToF configuration could be measured. The carrier drift velocity was studied for electrons and holes at the temperature interval of 80-460 K. The study is performed in the low-injection regime and includes low-field drift mobilities. The hole mobility was further investigated at low temperatures (10-80 K) and as expected a very high mobility was observed. In the case of electrons, a negative differential mobility was seen in the temperature interval of 100-150K. An explanation for this phenomenon is given by the intervally scattering and the relation between hot and cold conduction band valleys. This was observed in direct bandgap semiconductors with non-equivalent valleys such as GaAs but has not been seen in diamond before. Furthermore, first steps have been taken to utilize diamond for infrared (IR) radiation detection. To understand the fundamentals of the thermal response of diamond, Temperature Coefficient of Resistance (TCR) measurements were performed on diamond Schottky diodes which are a candidate for high temperature sensors. As a result, very high TCR values in combination with a low noise constant (K1/f) was observed.