“Over the last two decades, the technique of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of diamond at low pressure has been developed, providing the technology to produce thin and thick film coatings on a variety of materials as well as freestanding films and plates of diamond. High optical clarity diamond plates grown by the CVD method are now available in diameters that exceed that of the largest natural diamond ever found. Products spanning from diamond coated machine tooling to semiconducting diamond-based electronics have been developed using this technology. Recent estimates suggest that the global market for chemical vapor deposited diamond and diamond-like carbon films will reach $1 billion by 2000.”