Patent ID: 7622151

Claim:
A method of forming diamond comprising: a) providing a substrate in a reaction chamber in a non-magnetic-field microwave plasma system; b) providing, in the absence of a gas stream, a liquid precursor substantially free of water and containing methanol and at least one carbon and oxygen containing compound having a carbon to oxygen ratio greater than one, to a metering valve associated with an inlet of the reaction chamber, wherein the amount of the methanol is greater than the amount of the at least one carbon and oxygen containing compound; c) passing liquid precursor into the reaction chamber inlet with the metering valve wherein the liquid precursor enters the metering valve as liquid and vaporizes during entry into the reaction chamber inlet to generate vaporized precursor; and d) subjecting the vaporized precursor, in the absence of a carrier gas and in the absence of a reactive gas, to a plasma under conditions effective to disassociate the vaporized precursor and promote diamond growth on the substrate in a pressure range from about 70 to 130 Torr.