Creation of near-infrared emitting optical center related to nickel–silicon impurity complex in nanodiamond grains

Abstract

Nanodiamond grains having intensive light emission in the near-infrared region even at room temperature carry an important application potential. Advantages of light emitting optical centers formed in nanodiamond grains are the emission concentrated into a narrow band and that they are mostly single photon emitter. Transition metal related impurity centers formed in nanodiamond grains exhibit these favorable properties. In this work we report on the creation of Ni–Si impurity related complex defect center in nanodiamond grains under microwave plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition (MW CVD) growth process. This complex center accounts for the previously undocumented fluorescence system with zero phonon line (ZPL) emission at 865nm (1.433eV) and band width of 1.5nm (2.4meV) at room temperature. By varying deposition conditions the Ni–Si impurity related complex defect center was formed in nanodiamond grains of 80–200nm average sizes. Some variation of ZPL peak position and line width have been detected in nanodiamond grains prepared at different conditions, as well as in numerous nanodiamond grains prepared at the same conditions. The variations of local stress field may explain the spread of ZPL spectral parameters.