it is desirable to employ a method of continuously adjusting the substrate position in situ and there by keeping the deposition conditions on the substrate within the experimental variable window that enables optimum high quality new diamond synthesis in an exemplary embodiment the present disclosure provides for a reactor with a movable stage operable to reduce process steps and thus simplifying the entire process in an exemplary movable stage substrate holder configuration a basic applicator design is used that is similar to the basic microwave cavity plasma reactor design with an alteration to allow the substrate holder cooling stage to be varied axially as diamond synthesis proceeds in an exemplary embodiment the axial position variation is relatively small typically about 2 10 mm the movable substrate cooling stage allows the substrate to be repositioned during growth and thus the substrate position with respect to the discharge and the mo holder walls can be continuously adjusted during the diamond growth process this repositioning allows the substrate top surface and the associated edges to be adjusted to be in a desired location to keep deposition variables within a desired deposition window in an exemplary embodiment addition of a movable stage modifies the basic reactor design by changing the substrate holder cooling stage configuration the modified substrate holder configuration with a movable cooling stage is shown in fig2 according to fig2 a movable stage reactor comprises a a water cooled stage 6 8 and 9 b a fixed bottom base plate 7 c a quartz tube 17 d.