Mechanism for the amorphisation of diamond

Supersonic Motion of Atoms in an Octahedral Channel of fcc Copper

In this work, the mass transfer along an octahedral channel in an fcc copper single crystal is studied for the first time using the method of molecular dynamics. It is found that the initial position of the bombarding atom, outside or inside the crystal, does not noticeably affect the dynamics of its motion. The higher the initial velocity of the bombarding atom, the deeper its penetration into the material. It is found out how the place of entry of the bombarding atom into the channel affects its further dynamics. The greatest penetration depth and the smallest dissipation of kinetic energy occurs when the atom moves exactly in the center of the octahedral channel. The deviation of the bombarding atom from the center of the channel leads to the appearance of other velocity components perpendicular to the initial velocity vector and to an increase in its energy dissipation. Nevertheless, the motion of an atom along the channel is observed even when the entry point deviates from the center of the channel by up to 0.5 Å. The dissipated kinetic energy spent on the excitation of the atoms forming the octahedral channel is nearly proportional to the deviation from the center of the channel. At sufficiently high initial velocities of the bombarding atom, supersonic crowdions are formed, moving along the close-packed direction ⟨1¯10⟩, which is perpendicular to the direction of the channel. The results obtained are useful for understanding the mechanism of mass transfer during ion implantation and similar experimental techniques.

Creating two-dimensional solid helium via diamond lattice confinement

The universe abounds with solid helium in polymorphic forms. Therefore, exploring the allotropes of helium remains vital to our understanding of nature. However, it is challenging to produce, observe and utilize solid helium on the earth because high-pressure techniques are required to solidify helium. Here we report the discovery of room-temperature two-dimensional solid helium through the diamond lattice confinement effect. Controllable ion implantation enables the self-assembly of monolayer helium atoms between {100} diamond lattice planes. Using state-of-the-art integrated differential phase contrast microscopy, we decipher the buckled tetragonal arrangement of solid helium monolayers with an anisotropic nature compressed by the robust diamond lattice. These distinctive helium monolayers, in turn, produce substantial compressive strains to the surrounded diamond lattice, resulting in a large-scale bandgap narrowing up to ~2.2 electron volts. This approach opens up new avenues for steerable manipulation of solid helium for achieving intrinsic strain doping with profound applications.

Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, and at low temperatures it becomes a quantum crystal with exotic physical properties such as second sound, superfluidity, and giant plasticity. Here authors prepare 2D solid helium at room temperature through diamond lattice confinement.

Creation of pure non-crystalline diamond nanostructures via room-temperature ion irradiation and subsequent thermal annealing

Carbon exhibits a remarkable range of structural forms, due to the availability of sp³, sp² and sp¹ chemical bonds. Contrarily to other group IV elements such as silicon and germanium, the formation of an amorphous phase based exclusively on sp³ bonds is extremely challenging due to the strongly favored formation of graphitic-like structures at room temperature and pressure. As such, the formation of a fully sp³-bonded carbon phase requires an extremely careful (and largely unexplored) definition of the pressure and temperature across the phase diagram. Here, we report on the possibility of creating full-sp³ amorphous nanostructures within the bulk crystal of diamond with room-temperature ion-beam irradiation, followed by an annealing process that does not involve the application of any external mechanical pressure. As confirmed by numerical simulations, the (previously unreported) radiation-damage-induced formation of an amorphous sp²-free phase in diamond is determined by the buildup of extremely high internal stresses from the surrounding lattice, which (in the case of nanometer-scale regions) fully prevent the graphitization process. Besides the relevance of understanding the formation of exotic carbon phases, the use of focused/collimated ion beams discloses appealing perspectives for the direct fabrication of such nanostructures in complex three-dimensional geometries.

N+-ion implantation induced enhanced conductivity in polycrystalline and single crystal diamond

With the 200 keV N⁺-ion implantation technique and a systematic variation of fluence, we report on the formation of highly conducting n-type diamond where insulator-to-metal transition (IMT) is observed above a certain fluence wherein the conductivity no longer obeys the hopping mechanism of transport rather, it obeys quantum corrections to Boltzmann conductivity at concentrations of n_N ≥ 2 × 10²⁰ cm⁻³. The conductivity for ultra-nanocrystalline diamond is found to be high, ∼650 Ω⁻¹ cm⁻¹ with thermal activation energy E_a ∼ 4 meV. Interestingly, with gradual increase in fluence, the conductivity in polycrystalline diamond films has been seen to progress from the hopping mechanism of transport in the case of low fluence implantation to a semiconducting nature with medium fluence and finally a semi-metallic conduction is observed where percolation occurs giving an insulator-to-metal transition. XANES confirms that the long-range order in diamond films remains intact when implanted with low and medium fluences; while implantation at sufficiently high fluences >5 × 10¹⁶ cm⁻² leads to the formation of a disordered tetrahedral amorphous carbon network leading to metallic conduction resembling a metallic glass behaviour. XPS confirms that the sp² fraction increases gradually with fluence starting from only 6% in the case of low fluence implantations and saturates at 40–50% for implantation at high fluences. A similar observation can be made for single crystal diamond when implanted at high fluence; it retains long-range order but percolative transport takes place through defects or semi-amorphized regions.

The paper highlights the effect of nitrogen ion implantation on polycrystalline and single crystal diamond where we try to explain its structural and electrical transport behaviour in three different ion dose regimes: low, medium and high fluence respectively.

Achieving large uniform tensile elasticity in microfabricated diamond

Diamond is not only the hardest material in nature, but is also an extreme electronic material with an ultrawide bandgap, exceptional carrier mobilities, and thermal conductivity. Straining diamond can push such extreme figures of merit for device applications. We microfabricated single-crystalline diamond bridge structures with ~1 micrometer length by ~100 nanometer width and achieved sample-wide uniform elastic strains under uniaxial tensile loading along the [100], [101], and [111] directions at room temperature. We also demonstrated deep elastic straining of diamond microbridge arrays. The ultralarge, highly controllable elastic strains can fundamentally change the bulk band structures of diamond, including a substantial calculated bandgap reduction as much as ~2 electron volts. Our demonstration highlights the immense application potential of deep elastic strain engineering for photonics, electronics, and quantum information technologies.

Probing the Nanostructure of Neutron-Irradiated Diamond Using Raman Spectroscopy

Disordering of crystal lattice induced by irradiation with fast neutrons and other high-energy particles is used for the deep modification of electrical and optical properties of diamonds via significant nanoscale restructuring and defects engineering. Raman spectroscopy was employed to investigate the nature of radiation damage below the critical graphitization level created when chemical vapor deposition and natural diamonds are irradiated by fast neutrons with fluencies from 1 × 10¹⁸ to 3 × 10²⁰ cm⁻² and annealed at the 100–1700 °C range. The significant changes in the diamond Raman spectra versus the neutron-irradiated conditions are associated with the formation of intrinsic irradiation-induced defects that do not completely destroy the crystalline feature but decrease the phonon coherence length as the neutron dose increases. It was shown that the Raman spectrum of radiation-damaged diamonds is determined by the phonon confinement effect and that the boson peak is present in the Raman spectra up to annealing at 800–1000 °C. Three groups of defect-induced bands (first group = 260, 495, and 730 cm⁻¹; second group = 230, 500, 530, 685, and 760 cm^–1; and third group = 335, 1390, 1415, and 1740 cm⁻¹) were observed in Raman spectra of fast-neutron-irradiated diamonds.

Focused-helium-ion-beam blow forming of nanostructures: radiation damage and nanofabrication

Targeted irradiation of nanostructures by a finely focused ion beam provides routes to improved control of material modification and understanding of the physics of interactions between ion beams and nanomaterials. Here, we studied radiation damage in crystalline diamond and silicon nanostructures using a focused helium ion beam, with the former exhibiting extremely long-range ion propagation and large plastic deformation in a process visibly analogous to blow forming. We report the dependence of damage morphology on material, geometry, and irradiation conditions (ion dose, ion energy, ion species, and location). We anticipate that our method and findings will not only improve the understanding of radiation damage in isolated nanostructures, but will also support the design of new engineering materials and devices for current and future applications in nanotechnology.

Vacancy induced formation of nanoporous silicon, carbon and silicon carbide

Nanoporous semiconductors are used in a range of applications from sensing and gas separation, to photovoltaics, rechargeable batteries, energetic materials and micro electro mechanical systems. In most cases porosity occurs in conjunction with the competing process of amorphisation, creating a complicated material that responds differently to strain and density changes, depending on the composition. In this paper we use simple computational workflow involving Monte Carlo simulation, numerical characterisation and statistical analysis to explore the development of amorphous and nanoporous carbon, silicon and silicon carbide. We show that amorphous regions in Si and SiC form in advance of nanopores, and are essential in stabilising the nanopores once developed. Carbon prefers a porous structure at lower strains than amorphisation and exhibits a bimodal change in the structure which correlates with the change in C-C bond angles from tetrahedral sp³-like bonds to hexagonal sp²-like bonds as the strain increases. These results highlight how both of these processes can be analysed simultaneously using reliable interatomic forcefields or density functionals, provided sufficient samples are included to support the statistics.

Ion implantation in nanodiamonds: size effect and energy dependence

Nanoparticles are ubiquitous in nature and are increasingly important for technology. They are subject to bombardment by ionizing radiation in a diverse range of environments. In particular, nanodiamonds represent a variety of nanoparticles of significant fundamental and applied interest. Here we present a combined experimental and computational study of the behaviour of nanodiamonds under irradiation by xenon ions. Unexpectedly, we observed a pronounced size effect on the radiation resistance of the nanodiamonds: particles larger than 8 nm behave similarly to macroscopic diamond (i.e. characterized by high radiation resistance) whereas smaller particles can be completely destroyed by a single impact from an ion in a defined energy range. This latter observation is explained by extreme heating of the nanodiamonds by the penetrating ion. The obtained results are not limited to nanodiamonds, making them of interest for several fields, putting constraints on processes for the controlled modification of nanodiamonds, on the survival of dust in astrophysical environments, and on the behaviour of actinides released from nuclear waste into the environment.

Refractive index variation in a free-standing diamond thin film induced by irradiation with fully transmitted high-energy protons

Ion irradiation is a widely employed tool to fabricate diamond micro- and nano-structures for applications in integrated photonics and quantum optics. In this context, it is essential to accurately assess the effect of ion-induced damage on the variation of the refractive index of the material, both to control the side effects in the fabrication process and possibly finely tune such variations. Several partially contradictory accounts have been provided on the effect of the ion irradiation on the refractive index of single crystal diamond. These discrepancies may be attributable to the fact that in all cases the ions are implanted in the bulk of the material, thus inducing a series of concurrent effects (volume expansion, stress, doping, etc.). Here we report the systematic characterization of the refractive index variations occurring in a 38 µm thin artificial diamond sample upon irradiation with high-energy (3 MeV and 5 MeV) protons. In this configuration the ions are fully transmitted through the sample, while inducing an almost uniform damage profile with depth. Therefore, our findings conclusively identify and accurately quantify the change in the material polarizability as a function of ion beam damage as the primary cause for the modification of its refractive index.

Electrical stimulation of non-classical photon emission from diamond color centers by means of sub-superficial graphitic electrodes

Focused MeV ion beams with micrometric resolution are suitable tools for the direct writing of conductive graphitic channels buried in an insulating diamond bulk, as already demonstrated for different device applications. In this work we apply this fabrication method to the electrical excitation of color centers in diamond, demonstrating the potential of electrical stimulation in diamond-based single-photon sources. Differently from optically-stimulated light emission from color centers in diamond, electroluminescence (EL) requires a high current flowing in the diamond subgap states between the electrodes. With this purpose, buried graphitic electrode pairs, 10 μm spaced, were fabricated in the bulk of a single-crystal diamond sample using a 6 MeV C microbeam. The electrical characterization of the structure showed a significant current injection above an effective voltage threshold of 150 V, which enabled the stimulation of a stable EL emission. The EL imaging allowed to identify the electroluminescent regions and the residual vacancy distribution associated with the fabrication technique. Measurements evidenced isolated electroluminescent spots where non-classical light emission in the 560–700 nm spectral range was observed. The spectral and auto-correlation features of the EL emission were investigated to qualify the non-classical properties of the color centers.

Direct measurement and modelling of internal strains in ion-implanted diamond

We present a phenomenological model and finite element simulations to describe the depth variation of mass density and strain of ion-implanted single-crystal diamond. Several experiments are employed to validate the approach: firstly, samples implanted with 180 keV B ions at relatively low fluences are characterized using high-resolution x-ray diffraction; secondly, the mass density variation of a sample implanted with 500 keV He ions, well above its amorphization threshold, is characterized with electron energy loss spectroscopy. At high damage densities, the experimental depth profiles of strain and density display a saturation effect with increasing damage and a shift of the damage density peak towards greater depth values with respect to those predicted by TRIM simulations, which are well accounted for in the model presented here. The model is then further validated by comparing transmission electron microscopy-measured and simulated thickness values of a buried amorphous carbon layer formed at different depths by implantation of 500 keV He ions through a variable-thickness mask to simulate the simultaneous implantation of ions at different energies.