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With its excellent properties such as high thermal conductivity, strong radiation resistance and high electron mobility, diamond has become one of the most suitable materials for radiation detectors. Detector-grade diamond requires low impurity content, low dislocation density and other defects. However, it is very difficult to keep low impurities and low dislocations simultaneously in the actual crystal growth process. In this study, microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) method was used to grow diamond layer on two high-quality HPHT diamond substrates with the previously optimized process conditions. The nitrogen impurity content and structure of the HPHT substrate and growth layer were characterized and analyzed. The results show that, the content of nitrogen impurity on two HPHT substrates are 7. 1 x 10-6% and 4. 04 x 10-8%, respectively, whereas in their epitaxial diamond layers, the nitrogen impurity content are 2. 1 x 10-7% and 5 x 10-8%, respectively. The full width at half-maximum of the rocking curve shows that the dislocation density of the MPCVD growth layer is comparable to the HPHT substrate, though some dislocations were introduced into the MPCVD growth layer, which increases the stress. Overall, the dislocations in the HPHT substrate and epitaxial layer of single crystal diamond are in the same order of magnitude. The high-purity single crystal diamond prepared in this work may be used in nuclear radiation detection and semiconductor fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]