Symposium N, "Diamond Electronics and Biotechnology-Fundamentals to Applications V" was held at the 2011 MRS Fall Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, November 28-December 2, 2011. This volume contains submitted, peer-reviewed articles of the rapid advances in these fields. The scope of this meeting stretched from fundamentals to applications of all kinds of diamond, be they single crystal to nanocrystalline, bulk film to nanoparticle. New forms and applications of carbon such as graphene and single photon emission were given particular attention. The attendance of this series has been consistently high due to the excellent quality and international nature of the contributions, as well as the choice of invited speakers. New areas such as microplasma arrays from CVD were placed alongside such standards as diamond growth and electrochemistry. In this symposium, 10 invited oral presentations, 49 contributed oral presentations and 46 posters were presented, representing more than 15 countries.

Significant improvements over the past several years in material growth processes, material purity, and doping of diamond have led to the emergence of active diamond devices with increasingly impressive performance levels. In addition, the development of nanoscale diamond materials has increased the number of application areas for diamond devices. Particularly important topics now being addressed are the use of diamond within bioelectronics and biotechnology, quantum computing and quantum cryptography, high-temperature electronics devices, and advanced detector technology. Passive use of diamond within electronics is also increasing in importance, with the low-temperature growth of diamond films on other semiconductors for heat-spreading applications being actively considered by major chip companies worldwide. This book, first published in 2007, features significant results from leading scientists and engineers with both fundamental and applied interests in the diamond field.

Symposium A, "Diamond Electronics and Bioelectronics-Fundamentals to Applications IV," was held Nov. 29-Dec. 3 at the 2010 MRS Fall Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, and resulted in this volume covering the rapid advances in these evolving fields. Diamond in the single-crystal form has been considered to be the 'ultimate' wide bandgap semiconductor. However, it is now clear that applications outside of conventional electronics may be even more important. For example, the spectacular properties of single-point defects in diamond have destined this material to be important for the future of quantum informatics. Several other novel forms of diamond have been derived recently. These include nanocrystalline diamond films, which have unique mechanical, electronic and biocompatible properties for sensing, and diamond nanoparticles for biotechnology and drug delivery monitoring. In this symposium, 14 invited oral presentations, 56 contributing oral presentations, and 29 poster presentations have been contributed by teams from more than 15 countries. In this volume, you will find 26 selected papers from this meeting.

This book demonstrates the swift progress achieved in the field of diamond for electronic and bioelectronic applications. Predicted to become the 'ultimate semiconductor' in the early 1990s, diamond initially failed to match the impressive developments made with other wide-bandgap semiconductors. The situation is changing, with single-crystal electronic-grade diamond becoming a commercially available material. As importantly, the spectacular properties of single-point defects in diamond, as well as its superlative thermal conductivity, radiation 'hardness' and inherent biocompatibility, are being recognized as vital for devices used in biosensing, quantum informatics, and environmentally challenging applications. Not all recent advances relate to single-crystal diamond. Nanocrystalline diamond (NCD), ultra-nanocrystalline diamond (UNCD) and diamond-like carbon (DLC) are very important forms of carbon, as are multiphase carbon nanostructures and graphene. This book features results in all areas of high-performance diamond research. Chemical, electrochemical, and biochemical sensing, including nanodiamond for sensing in-cellular environment, and the integration of diamond within biological systems, are highlighted.