Method for manufacturing a porous synthetic diamond material

Abstract

A method of manufacturing a diamond layer having a porous three-dimensional structure, the method being of the type which includes growing the diamond layer from a sacrificial material and gradually decomposing said sacrificial material during growth of the diamond layer, said material including the following steps; 1) provision of a substrate capable of supporting the plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition growth of the diamond layer on at least one of the surfaces of of the substrate, the substrate comprising, on said at least one surface thereof, a layer made of a sacrificial material having a porous three-dimensional structure capable of gradually decomposing upon contact with said plasma, the layer of sacrificial material containing diamond grains of nanometric size, and 2) growth by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition of the diamond layer from diamond grains and concomitant and gradual decomposition of the scrificial material upon contact with said plasma.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.