Shock wave synthesized diamond and detonation synthesized diamond were discussed in this paper. X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and Fourier-IR spectroscopy were used to study the structural properties of the two dynamically synthesized diamonds. The X-ray diffraction patterns were further analyzed to extract the thermal parameter B, root-mean-square atomic displacement, Debye characteristic temperature, average grain size and microstrain for the two diamonds. Both the two dynamically synthesized diamonds have a cubic conformation and considerable microstrain. Detonation synthesized diamond has a larger lattice parameter, a larger thermal parameter B, a larger microstrain and a smaller grain size than shock synthesized diamond. A size dependence of the thermal parameter B and Debye temperature was also found. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.