Synthesis of thick single crystal diamond material via chemical vapour deposition

A method of fabricating a plurality of single crystal CVD diamonds which includes mounting a plurality of single crystal diamond substrates on a first carrier substrate. The plurality of single crystal diamond substrates is subjected to a first CVD diamond growth process to form a plurality of single crystal CVD diamonds on the plurality of substrates. The plurality of single crystal CVD diamonds are mounted in a recessed carrier substrate and subjected to a second CVD diamond growth process. The first carrier substrate is preferably planar and the first growth process can be run until the diamonds have a thickness of 3-8mm and comprise a rotation layer and a layer disposed on the rotation layer. The rotation layer can be removed prior to mounting 9-100 of the diamonds in the recessed carrier such that the upper surfaces of the carrier and diamonds are located at the same height to within 300µm or less and the distance between each diamond can be 0.5-4mm.The method may also include an etch step. The second growth process may produce diamonds with a thickness of 8-20mm and a third growth process may be used to increase the thickness of the diamonds further.