Verfahren zum Ätzen einer Diamantkörpers mit einem geschmolzenen Metall oder teilweise geschmolzenem Metall

摘要

A face of a diamond body (10, FIG. 1; 30, FIG. 2), such as a CVD diamond film, is etched by maintaining, for a prescribed time duration, at least a portion of the face in direct physical contact with a layer (11) comprising a molten or a partially molten metal or a metallic alloy of one or more than one rare earth metal, the layer having the property of dissolving carbon. While the body is being etched, various portions (31, 32, 33) of a major surface of the body can be protected for various time durations by masks against the etching--whereby, after dicing the body, each of the resulting dies can be used, for example, as a submount (30) for a laser (40) and a photodetector (61)--the latter for the purpose of feedback to the laser.