Plasma CVD method for producing a diamond coating

A method of producing a diamond coating on at least one object by means of a reactive plasma enhanced deposition process, wherein said plasma is generated as a low voltage arc discharge and with the aid of a carbon donor gas, comprising the steps of:

• (a) introducing said gas into a vacuum chamber;
• (b) generating said low voltage arc discharge in said vacuum chamber by applying DC voltage energy from a first independent energy source to electrodes defining an anode/cathode discharge space and introducing electrically charged carriers generated by a second independent energy source into said discharge space;
• (c) establishing in said discharge space a gas pressure p in a range of
• 5 Pa<p<1000 Pa
• (d) generating said discharge with a discharge current I per unit surface area aligned along a plane perpendicular to a line extending between the electrodes defining said anode/cathode discharge space as follows:
• 0.8 kA/m.sup.2 .ltoreq.I,
• (e) generating said plasma discharge with a substantially uniform plasma density along planes perpendicular to said line by introducing said electrically charged carriers into said discharge space through a multitude of openings distributed in a plate arranged perpendicular to said line;
• and
• (f) arranging said at least one object to be coated on a plane perpendicular to said line and within said discharge space.