Diamond polycrystalline films synthesized by chemical vapor deposition techniques present interesting feature for laser spectroscopy due to several advantages arising from their optical, electronic, thermal and mechanical properties. Their wide transmission band from the far IR to the UV make them attractive as optical devices for high-power laser beam. Moreover, with a wide band gap, a short carrier lifetime and a high damage threshold, diamond is an ideal semiconductor material for the fabrication of fast and solar blind VUV detectors. We report here results of laser studies performed with tow different objectives. With use of a pulsed VUV laser at 125 nm we have determined the photoconductive response of polycrystalline diamond detectors. With a CO2 laser we have investigated the polarization properties of auto-supported films having thicknesses smaller than the wavelength.
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