A method of manufacturing synthetic CVD
diamond material, the method comprising: providing a
microwave plasma reactor comprising: a
plasma chamber; one or more substrates disposed in the
plasma chamber providing a growth surface area over which the synthetic CVD
diamond material is to be deposited in use; a
microwave coupling configuration for feeding microwaves from a
microwave generator into the
plasma chamber; and a gas flow
system for feeding process gases into the
plasma chamber and removing them therefrom, injecting process gases into the
plasma chamber; feeding microwaves from the microwave generator into the plasma chamber through the microwave
coupling configuration to form a plasma above the growth surface area; and growing synthetic CVD
diamond material over the growth surface area, wherein the process gases comprise at least one
dopant in gaseous form, selected from a one or more of
boron,
silicon, sulphur, phosphorous,
lithium and
beryllium at a concentration equal to or greater than 0.01 ppm and / or
nitrogen at a concentration equal to or greater than 0.3 ppm, wherein the gas flow
system includes a gas inlet comprising one or more gas inlet nozzles disposed opposite the growth surface area and configured to inject process gases towards the growth surface area, and wherein the process gases are injected towards the growth surface area at a total gas flow rate equal to or greater than 500 standard cm3 per minute and / or wherein the process gases are injected into the plasma chamber through the or each gas inlet
nozzle with a Reynolds number a Reynolds number in a range 1 to 100.