Fabrication of free-standing diamond membranes

We describe here a method for fabricating free-standing diamond membranes. Diamond films were deposited on a silicon substrate by microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition and then part of the substrate chemically removed. The films described here were 15 mm in diameter with thickness of approximately 12 mu m. A novel feature of our approach lies in the method used to obtain the selective dissolution of the substrate; a container with O-rings was used, instead of masks, allowing a fast and clean isotropic dissolution of part of the silicon substrate. The deposited diamond films as well as the free-standing membranes were characterized by scanning and transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction and Raman spectroscopy.