Diamond growth from a CO/CH4 mixture by laser excitation of CO: Laser excited chemical vapor deposition

Abstract
We report for the first time, diamond growth from a mixture of 95% CO and 5% CH4 without gas phase hyperdilution of H2. Such a mixture has not been previously reported to yield diamond by any of the existing methods (hot‐filament chemical vapor deposition, plasma‐assisted chemical vapor deposition, or flame synthesis). In this paper we describe our observations of diamond growth at low pressures from vibrational excitation of CO in a CO/CH4 mixture by irradiation from a CO laser operating on its shorter wavelengths. We refer to this technique as laser excited chemical vapor deposition.