Method of and apparatus for producing single-crystalline diamond of large size

摘要

An initial single-crystalline diamond base material is prepared from a flat plate having a major surface and side surfaces consisting of low-index planes. Then, single crystalline diamond is homoepitaxially vapor-deposited on the single-crystalline diamond base material, and a resulting diamond material is cut and polished in a particular manner to provide a successive base material on which single-crystalline diamond is again grown, thereby forming a single-crystalline diamond having a large area. A holder for the single-crystalline diamond base material consists of or is coated with a material hardly forming a compound with carbon. Single crystalline diamond can be stably formed on the surfaces of the base material. Consequently, single-crystalline diamond of high quality having a large area can be stably produced in a shorter time using either plasma CVD or a thermal filament method.