A substrate comprising diamond has NV.sup.- centers in a concentration greater than about 0.5 parts per million (ppm). The method for producing this diamond substrate includes providing diamond being doped with nitrogen, irradiating at least a partial surface of the substrate with radiation that creates vacancies in the diamond, and carrying out a second heat treatment of the substrate at a certain temperature. The substrate can be used as a sensor element of a magnetometer or also as a qubit of a quantum computer

A substrate comprising diamond has NV.sup.- centers in a concentration greater than about 0.5 parts per million (ppm). The method for producing this diamond substrate includes providing diamond being doped with nitrogen, irradiating at least a partial surface of the substrate with radiation that creates vacancies in the diamond, and carrying out a second heat treatment of the substrate at a certain temperature. The substrate can be used as a sensor element of a magnetometer or also as a qubit of a quantum computer

A diamond scanning element, especially for an imaging application, includes a support and a pillar extending from the support. The pillar has a longitudinal axis and the pillar includes a tip with a tapered lateral section with a, preferably constantly, increasing curvature. The tip includes a sensor element, which is a defect, and a flat end facet extending toward the axis with a gradient of less than 10%.

A diamond scanning element, especially for an imaging application, includes a support and a pillar extending from the support. The pillar has a longitudinal axis and the pillar includes a tip with a tapered lateral section with a, preferably constantly, increasing curvature. The tip includes a sensor element, which is a defect, and a flat end facet extending toward the axis with a gradient of less than 10%.

An object of the present invention is to provide a novel technology capable of achieving high-quality SiC seed crystal, SiC ingot, SiC wafer and SiC wafer with an epitaxial film. The present invention, which solves the above object, is a method for producing a SiC seed crystal for growth of a SiC ingot, the method including a heat treatment step of heat-treating a SiC single crystal in an atmosphere containing Si element and C element. As described above, by heat-treating the SiC single crystal in an atmosphere containing the Si element and the C element, it is possible to produce a high-quality SiC seed crystal in which strain and crystal defects are suppressed.

An object of the present invention is to provide a novel technology capable of achieving high-quality SiC seed crystal, SiC ingot, SiC wafer and SiC wafer with an epitaxial film. The present invention, which solves the above object, is a method for producing a SiC seed crystal for growth of a SiC ingot, the method including a heat treatment step of heat-treating a SiC single crystal in an atmosphere containing Si element and C element. As described above, by heat-treating the SiC single crystal in an atmosphere containing the Si element and the C element, it is possible to produce a high-quality SiC seed crystal in which strain and crystal defects are suppressed.

Disclosed are a silicon carbide powder, a method of manufacturing a silicon carbide powder, and a silicon carbide wafer. More particularly, the silicon carbide powder includes carbon and silicon and in the silicon carbide powder, O1s/C1s of a surface measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is 0.28 or less.

Disclosed are a silicon carbide powder, a method of manufacturing a silicon carbide powder, and a silicon carbide wafer. More particularly, the silicon carbide powder includes carbon and silicon and in the silicon carbide powder, O1s/C1s of a surface measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is 0.28 or less.

The problem to addressed by the present invention is that of providing a novel technique that can remove a strained layer introduced into a silicon carbide substrate by laser processing. The present silicon carbide substrate manufacturing method involves a processing step for performing laser processing to remove part of a silicon carbide substrate by irradiating the silicon carbide substrate with a laser, and a strained layer removal step for removing a strained layer that was introduced in the silicon carbide substrate by the aforementioned processing step involving heat treatment of the silicon carbide substrate. In this way, the present invention, which is a method of removing a strained layer introduced into a silicon carbide substrate by laser processing, involves a strained layer removal step for heat treating the silicon carbide substrate.

Provided is a surface treatment method for a SiC substrate (40), the method being capable of controlling whether to generate a step bunching or the type of step bunching that is generated. In the surface treatment method in which the surface of the SiC substrate (40) is etched by heating the SiC substrate (40) under Si vapor pressure, an etching mode and an etching depth which are determined at least on the basis of an etching rate, are controlled to etch the SiC substrate (40), so that a surface pattern of the SiC substrate (40) after etching treatment is controlled.