Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) is usually a process in which carbon containing gases are dissociated under the action of high temperature plasma and carbon atoms are deposited on a substrate to form a diamond film. The substrate can be a non-diamond material, but single crystal diamonds are usually formed by depositing carbon atoms on a diamond substrate. Carbonaceous gases are usually a mixture of gases containing nitrogen, methane and hydrogen. Methane is the source of carbon atoms for synthetic diamonds, nitrogen increases the growth rate and hydrogen inhibits the formation of graphite. Usually CVD synthesis of diamonds is carried out under low pressure and high temperature conditions, with pressures typically less than one atmosphere and temperatures around 1000 degrees.