Patent ID: 7547358

Claim:
A method for growing diamond crystal, the method comprising: heating a carbon-bearing molten solvent; adding carbon solute to the carbon-bearing molten solvent in order to produce a solution of the molten solvent and an amount of carbon; flowing the solution across a distance from a first diamond-deposition location to a second diamond-deposition location, the second location being downstream of the first location; cooling the flowing solution across the distance while substantially maintaining a temperature gradient from a first temperature at the first location in the flowing solution to a second temperature at the second location, wherein the second temperature is lower than the first temperature, wherein the cooling includes flowing a cooling fluid in a counter-flow direction relative to the flow of the solution; and depositing carbon in diamond crystal structure from the flowing solution onto at least one diamond-deposition surface, wherein the depositing of carbon in diamond crystal structure occurs substantially concurrently at both the first location at the first temperature and the second location at the second temperature.