A polycrystalline CVD diamond material comprising a surface having a surface roughness R q of less than 5 nm, wherein said surface is damage free to the extent that a number density of defects revealed by an anisotropic thermal revealing etch is less than 100 per mm 2, wherein the anisotropic thermal revealing etch is performed using the following procedure: (i) examining the surface at a magnification of 50 times using reflected light with a metallurgical microscope to ensure that there are no surface features present; (ii) exposing the surface to an air-butane flame thereby raising the surface to a temperature in a range 800°C to 1000°C for a period of 10 seconds; (iii) examining the surface at a magnification of 50 times using reflected light with a metallurgical microscope and counting defects revealed by the anisotropic thermal revealing etch to determine their number density; and (iv)repeating steps (ii) and (iii) and comparing the measured density of defects with that of the previous cycle until the following condition is met: if the number density of defects counted is less than or equal to 150% of the number density determined in the previous cycle, then all the defects are deemed to be revealed and the measurement recorded is the average of the measurements of the last two cycles, if not the cycle is repeated again, and wherein the number density of defects in step (iii) is measured by the following method: (i) the defects to be counted are those defects visible at a magnification of 50 times with a metallurgical microscope which fall totally or partially within a rectangular area 1 mm x 0.2 mm projected onto the surface being characterised; (ii) the area is selected at random over the surface or portion of the surface to be characterised and randomly oriented; (iii)the defects are counted in a minimum of 5 such areas; and (iv)the number density of defects is calculated by dividing the total number of defects counted by the total area examined to give a number density in terms of defects per mm 2. (i) examining the surface at a magnification of 50 times using reflected light with a metallurgical microscope to ensure that there are no surface features present; (ii) exposing the surface to an air-butane flame thereby raising the surface to a temperature in a range 800°C to 1000°C for a period of 10 seconds; (iii) examining the surface at a magnification of 50 times using reflected light with a metallurgical microscope and counting defects revealed by the anisotropic thermal revealing etch to determine their number density; and (iv)repeating steps (ii) and (iii) and comparing the measured density of defects with that of the previous cycle until the following condition is met: if the number density of defects counted is less than or equal to 150% of the number density determined in the previous cycle, then all the defects are deemed to be revealed and the measurement recorded is the average of the measurements of the last two cycles, if not the cycle is repeated again, and (i) the defects to be counted are those defects visible at a magnification of 50 times with a metallurgical microscope which fall totally or partially within a rectangular area 1 mm x 0.2 mm projected onto the surface being characterised; (ii) the area is selected at random over the surface or portion of the surface to be characterised and randomly oriented; (iii)the defects are counted in a minimum of 5 such areas; and (iv)the number density of defects is calculated by dividing the total number of defects counted by the total area examined to give a number density in terms of defects per mm 2.