This excellent, in-depth review of diamond films and coatings covers their properties, growth, deposition, characterization, and applications. The eight chapters are written by experts in their field. Early studies on synthetic diamonds were done in the 1950s and 1960s, however, their use and importance were not recognized until the late 1970s and early 1980s. These coatings are now being used in high temperature and tribological applications, optics and electro-optics applications, and certainly biological applications.