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What does 'harder than diamond' mean?

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Figure 1: Hardness measurements of moissanite single crystal together with optical images of the indentations produced by ten-second loading parallel to the crystallographic c axis (J. Qian and Y. Zhao, unpublished work).

Notes

  1. *1st International Workshop on Advanced Superhard Materials (IWASM) at Villetaneuse, France, 10–12 December, 2003.

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Correspondence to M. Nicol.

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Brazhkin, V., Dubrovinskaia, N., Nicol, M. et al. What does 'harder than diamond' mean?. Nature Mater 3, 576–577 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1196

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