the details of the invention will be described using six examples . the first example describes the use of the invention for making an essentially damage free surface on a series of single crystal cvd diamond plates and comparing the resultant surfaces with a sample that has not been etched . the second example describes the use of the invention for making fine structural features on a polycrystalline cvd diamond plate . four single crystal cvd diamond plates approximately 4 mm × 4 mm × 0 . 5 mm were laser sawn from larger as - grown blocks of single crystal cvd diamond made by the method disclosed in wo 01 / 96633 . the large planar surfaces of the plates ( hereinafter referred to as the ‘ major surfaces ’) were oriented within a few degrees of { 100 } crystallographic surfaces . the smaller surfaces forming the edges of the plates ( hereinafter referred to as the ‘ edge surfaces ’) were approximately parallel to & lt ; 100 & gt ; directions . the major surfaces of all four plates were initially lapped on a cast iron lapping wheel using progressively finer diamond grit suspended in a cellulose - based carrier . the final lapping stage used diamond grit in the size range 15 μm to 25 μm and the roughness r q measured using a stylus profilometer over a 0 . 8 mm length was in the range 100 to 150 nm for all three plates . previous experiments have indicated that after this stage of lapping , the sub - surface damaged layer extends to a depth of approximately 10 μm beneath the surface . all of the plates were chosen at random and their major surfaces were polished using a traditional diamond polishing scaife . two cast iron scaife - wheels were used , the first prepared with diamond powder in the size range 2 - 4 μm and the second with diamond powder in the size range 1 - 2 μm . the depth of material removed during the scaife polishing process was determined to be approximately 15 μm . after completion of the scaife processing , the r q values measured using a stylus profilometer over an 80 μm length were less than 5 nm . more accurate measurements over areas ( e . g . about 1 μm by about 1 μm ) made with an atomic force microscope gave the r q values listed in table 1 . one of the plates ( referred to as ‘ sample 1 ’) was selected at random and subjected to the thermal revealing etch according to the method previously described ( heating the surface in air to about 850 ° c . for 10 seconds using a small air - butane blow torch ). the defects were counted according to the method of the invention . the plate showed considerable evidence of sub - surface damage , very much greater than 100 defects per mm 2 . the other three plates ( referred to as ‘ sample 2 ’, ‘ sample 3 ’ and ‘ sample 4 ’) were subjected to inductively coupled plasma etches to remove material from the surface . the icp etching conditions were : a platen power of approximately 300 w , a coil power of approximately 400 w , a chamber pressure of 5 mtorr ( 0 . 667 pa ), flow rates of 25 sccm for ar and 40 sccm for cl 2 . the etching times chosen for the three samples were 15 , 30 and 60 minutes . the amount of material removed from the etched surfaces , the initial and final surface roughness , r q , values are in table 1 . after the plasma etching process and after the measurement of the r q , all three plates were subjected to the thermal revealing etch to evaluate the extent of sub - surface damage . for each of samples 2 to 4 the number density of defects measured was in each case less than 10 , unlike that revealed in sample 1 , which was the plate not subjected to the plasma etch . two samples of polycrystalline cvd diamond about 10 mm × 10 mm in lateral extent and about 650 μm thick were polished on their growth surfaces using conventional lapidary processes . the surface roughness values , r q , of the polished plates , measured by atomic force microscopy over a 2 μm by 2 μm area were 1 . 0 nm and 1 . 0 nm . micro - trenches were etched into the two samples of polycrystalline diamond using an ar — cl 2 icp plasma . micro - trench photoresist features were mask patterned on the surface of the samples using standard lithographic methods . the samples were etched using the following icp chamber conditions : a platen power of approximately 300 w , a coil power of approximately 400 w , a chamber pressure of 5 mtorr ( 0 . 667 pa ), flow rates of 25 sccm for ar and 40 sccm for cl 2 . in the first sample trenches of depth 16 nm were etched [ fig1 and fig2 ] and in the second sample trenches of depth 53 nm were etched [ fig3 and fig4 ]. it can be seen that the trench walls are well - defined , with no rough edges apparent . the etch rates were measured to be approximately 1 nm per second in both cases , which demonstrates the reproducibility of this method . it is also clear that the surfaces post - etch show no indication of the grain boundaries in these polycrystalline samples , which demonstrates that the etch is isotropic in nature . the r q , values ( measured over 1 μm × 1 μm areas using an atomic force microscope ) of the samples after etching the 16 and 53 nm deep trenches are 0 . 8 and 1 . 1 nm respectively , which should be compared to the pre - etched surface roughness of 1 . 0 nm . this indicates that under these conditions little or no surface roughening is caused using this etching method , and further supports the conclusion that the etch is isotropic . spherical micro - lens structures were fabricated in a sample of single crystal iia natural diamond using ar / cl 2 icp etching in conjunction with the photoresist reflow method [ h . w . choi , e . gu , c . liu , j . m . girkin , m . d . dawson , j . of appl . phys . 97 ( 6 ), 063101 ( 2005 ); c . l . lee , h . w . choi , e . gu , m . d . dawson , dia . rel . mat . 15 , 725 ( 2006 )]. a 7 μm thick layer of shipley spr220 photoresist was spin - coated onto the diamond substrate first . after mask patterning , the photoresist pillars were formed . the sample was then placed on a hotplate at 125 ° c . for 2 minutes to allow the photoresist pillars to re - flow . due to the surface tension , spherical lens structures were formed . these lens structures were then transferred onto the diamond substrate by icp etching using ar / cl 2 plasma . the icp parameters used were : a platen power of 100 w , a coil power of 400 w , a chamber pressure of 5 mtorr ( 0 . 667 pa ), flow rates of 25 sccm for ar and 40 sccm for cl 2 , with an etching duration of 25 minutes . a line drawing based on an atomic force microscopy image of a representative diamond micro - lens is shown in fig5 . the surface diameter and height of the lens were measured to be 50 μm and 0 . 75 μm respectively . the profile of the diamond micro - lenses was studied by examining the cross - sectional scan of the atomic force microscopy images . the measured profile was then compared to the curvature of a circle . the measured cross - sectional profile of the diamond micro - lens and the fitted spherical profile are plotted in fig6 . it can be seen that the deviation from the ideal profile is very small , indicating the cross - sectional profile of the micro - lens is very close to spherical in shape . the etch rate and etch selectivity ( as defined earlier ) of the ar / cl 2 icp plasma was investigated as a function of the icp coil power using the following conditions : icp coil powers of 100 w . 400 w and 900 w ; a constant icp platen power of 300 w ; a chamber pressure of 5 mtorr ( 0 . 667 pa ); flow rates of 25 sccm for ar and 40 sccm for cl 2 ; an etching duration of 5 minutes . single crystal natural diamond samples were used for these experiments and photoresist was used as the mask material . the results are plotted in fig7 . it is observed that the etch rate increases linearly with the icp coil power and etch selectivity is approximately constant ( at around 0 . 09 ). in a similar experiment the etch selectivity on type ib synthetic single crystal diamond was also found to be around 0 . 09 . this should be compared to the etch selectivity using an ar / o 2 icp plasma , which is around 0 . 20 [ c . l . lee , h . w . choi , e . gu , m . d . dawson , dia . rel . mat . 15 , 725 ( 2006 )]. hence , using photoresist masks of identical thickness , the height or depth of microstructures fabricated in diamond ( such as micro - lenses and micro - trenches ) using icp ar / cl 2 etching would be approximately half of those fabricated using icp ar / o 2 etching . thus the lower etch selectivity obtained using ar / cl 2 is more suitable for etching shallower structural features into diamond in which precise control on the depth or height of the microstructure is required . etch rate as a function of time was investigated by etching micro - trenches in type ib synthetic single crystal diamond samples . trenches were etched in three samples using identical photoresist masks and under ar / cl 2 icp plasma conditions identical to those described in example 2 . the three samples were etched respectively for 9 , 20 and 40 seconds . the depths of the micro - trenches formed were measured by atomic force microscopy and are plotted in fig8 as a function of the etch time . the mean etch rate was extracted by performing a simple linear curve fit to the data , and found to be 1 . 29 ± 0 . 03 nm s − 1 . the small uncertainty in this number indicates that the method yields a reproducible etch rate , which is an important requirement of a manufacturing process . a type ib hpht single crystal sample , mechanically polished using a resin - bonded polishing wheel , was etched for 10 minutes using the following icp chamber conditions : a platen power of approximately 300 w , a coil power of approximately 100 w , a chamber pressure of 5 mtorr ( 0 . 667 pa ), flow rates of 25 sccm for ar and 40 sccm for cl 2 . fig9 shows a representative atomic force microscope scan over a 1 μm × 1 μm surface area of the polished sample prior to icp etching . the surface is characterised by nanometer - scale linear trenches or grooves resulting from the polishing and the roughness r q over this area was measured to be 0 . 53 nm . fig1 shows a representative afm scan over a 1 μm × 1 μm surface area of the sample after the icp etch . it can be seen that the linear polishing grooves are shallower than before and the roughness r q over this area was measured to be 0 . 19 nm . this example demonstrates the ability of this method to reduce the roughness of mechanically pre - polished diamond surfaces .