No Arabic abstract
Diamond displays a large variety of luminescence centers which define its optical properties and can be either created or modified by irradiation. The main purpose of the present work is to study the radiation hardness of several of such centers in homoepitaxial single crystal CVD diamond by following the evolution of photoluminescence and ionoluminescence upon 2 MeV proton irradiation. Luminescence decays were observed with values of the fluence at half of the starting luminescence (F1/2) of the order of 1014 cm-2. The 3H center displayed a non monotonic behavior, with a growing behavior and a subsequent decay with a rather high F1/2 value (in the order of few 1016 cm-2), maintaining at the highest fluences an intensity significantly higher than the blue A-band. A simple model based on a double-exponential trend was defined to fit with satisfactory accuracy the evolution of the 3H center. Several PL centers (namely: 3H, TR12, 491 nm, 494 nm) exhibited clear correlations and anti-correlations in their fluence dependences, which were considered in the attempt to acquire some insight into their possible alternative attributions.
Color centers in diamond are very promising candidates among the possible realizations for practical single-photon sources because of their long-time stable emission at room temperature. The popular nitrogen-vacancy center shows single-photon emission, but within a large, phonon-broadened spectrum (~100nm), which strongly limits its applicability for quantum communication. By contrast, Ni-related centers exhibit narrow emission lines at room temperature. We present investigations on single color centers consisting of Ni and Si created by ion implantation into single crystalline IIa diamond. We use systematic variations of ion doses between 10^8/cm^2 and 10^14/cm^2 and energies between 30keV and 1.8MeV. The Ni-related centers show emission in the near infrared spectral range (~770nm to 787nm) with a small line-width (~3nm FWHM). A measurement of the intensity correlation function proves single-photon emission. Saturation measurements yield a rather high saturation count rate of 77.9 kcounts/s. Polarization dependent measurements indicate the presence of two orthogonal dipoles.
Nanodiamond crystals containing single color centers have been grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The fluorescence from individual crystallites was directly correlated with crystallite size using a combined atomic force and scanning confocal fluorescence microscope. Under the conditions employed, the optimal size for single optically active nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center incorporation was measured to be 60 to 70 nm. The findings highlight a strong dependence of NV incorporation on crystal size, particularly with crystals less than 50 nm in size.
Notwithstanding numerous density functional studies on the chemically induced transformation of multilayer graphene into a diamond-like film, a comprehensive convincing experimental proof of such a conversion is still lacking. We show that the fluorination of graphene sheets in Bernal (AB)-stacked bilayer graphene (AB-BLG) grown by chemical vapor deposition on a single crystal CuNi(111) surface triggers the formation of interlayer carbon-carbon bonds, resulting in a fluorinated diamond monolayer (F-diamane). Induced by fluorine chemisorption, the phase transition from AB-BLG to single layer diamond was studied and verified by X-ray photoelectron, ultraviolet photoelectron, Raman, UV-Vis, electron energy loss spectroscopies, transmission electron microscopy, and DFT calculations.
We demonstrate the fabrication of sub-micron layers of single-crystal diamond suitable for subsequent processing as demonstrated by this test ring structure. This method is a significant enabling technology for nanomechanical and photonic structures incorporating colour-centres. The process uses a novel double implant process, annealing and chemical etching to produce membranes of diamond from single-crystal starting material, the thinnest layers achieved to date are 210 nm thick.
Nitrogen-vacancy (NV-) color centers in diamond were created by implantation of 7 keV 15N (I = 1/2) ions into type IIa diamond. Optically detected magnetic resonance was employed to measure the hyperfine coupling of the NV- centers. The hyperfine spectrum from 15NV- arising from implanted 15N can be distinguished from 14NV- centers created by native 14N (I = 1) sites. Analysis indicates 1 in 40 implanted 15N atoms give rise to an optically observable 15NV- center. This report ultimately demonstrates a mechanism by which the yield of NV- center formation by nitrogen implantation can be measured.