Diamond Bristol

Born in London, Paul May grew up in Redditch, Worcestershire. He went on to study at Bristol University, where he graduated with a first class honours in chemistry in 1985. He then joined GEC Hirst Research Centre in Wembley where he worked on semiconductor processing for three years, before returning to Bristol to study for a PhD in plasma etching of semiconductors. His PhD was awarded in 1991, and he then remained at Bristol to co-found the CVD diamond research group. In 1992 he was awarded a Ramsay Memorial Fellowship to continue the diamond work, and after that a Royal Society University Fellowship. In October 1999 he became a full-time lecturer in the School of Chemistry at Bristol. He is currently 36 years old. His scientific interests include diamond films, plasma chemistry, interstellar space dust, the internet and web technology. His recreational interests include table-tennis, science fiction, and heavy metal music. 

FIGURE 3.10 (a) Chemical-vapour deposition reactor (b) cross section of a 100 pm-thick CVD diamond film grown by DC arc jet. The columnar nature of the growth is evident, as is the increase in film quality and grain size with growth time. (Courtesy of Dr. Paul May and Prof. Mike Ashfold, Bristol University.)... 

FIGURE 11.1 SEM images of (a) a diamond film grown with methane, hydrogen, and 0.2% PH3, showing (100) square facets and (b) a diamond film grown at lower substrate temperature—now the crystals are predominantly (7 iij triangular facetted. (Courtesy of Dr. P.D. May and Professor M.N.R.Ashfold, Bristol University.)... 

C. Trevor, D. Chems, and P. Southworth, TEM studies of the nucleation of CVD diamond on silicon, in Proc. Inst Phys. Electron Microscopy and Analysis Group Conf, (F. J. Humphreys, ed.), Bristol, UK, lOP, pp. 275-278 (1991)... 

Although mentioned by name several times in the Old Testameni it is considered unlikely that the early Hebrews were acquaintec with the diamond. The diamond of Exod. xxviii. 18, anc xxxix. ii, was an engraved stone, and could therefore hardly havi been the gem we know under that name. It was probably quartz The so-called Bristol, Cornish, and Derbyshire diamonds ar merely quartz (p. 61). The later references in Jer. xvii. I, an Ezek. xxviii. 13, may possibly be genuine. 

Many stones that are not genuine diamonds are popularly so called. Thus Brazil, Bristol, Cornish, Derbyshire, Alaskan, Arkansas, Marmora and German diamonds are quartz. Matura or Ceylon diamonds are white zircons. The Saxony diamond is white topaz the Simili or Strass diamond is merely a paste (glass). Carbonado and coal are frequently termed black diamonds — and not without reason. 

G. Davies, Diamond, Adam Hilger, Bristol, 1984, Chapter 4. 

Davies G, Diamond, Adam Hilger (The publishing arm of The Institute of Physics), Bristol, 1984. Properties of Diamond, a publication of De Beers Industrial Diamond Division, 1989. 

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