Abstract
We present a fundamental study of the erbium luminescence centres in single- and nano-crystalline (NCD) diamonds. Both diamond forms were doped with Er using ion implantation with the energy of 190 keV at fluences up to 5 × 1015 ions·cm−2, followed by annealing at controllable temperature in Ar atmosphere or vacuum to enhance the near infrared photoluminescence. The Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry showed that Er concentration maximum determined for NCD films is slightly shifted to the depth with respect to the Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter simulation. The number of the displaced atoms per depth slightly increased with the fluence, but in fact the maximum reached the fully disordered target even in the lowest ion fluence used. The post-implantation annealing at 800 °C in vacuum had a further beneficial effect on erbium luminescence intensity at around 1.5 μm, especially for the Er-doped NCD films, which contain a higher amount of grain boundaries than single-crystalline diamond.
Highlights
Nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) is a material that retains outstanding properties of single-crystalline diamond [1,2]
The Er luminescence in the crystals can be affected by: (i) erbium oxidation state (+III is a stable configuration with intensive emission); (ii) erbium concentration; (iii) a crystal field in the vicinity of erbium ions [18,19]
Active erbium luminescence centres were created in single- and nano-crystalline diamond samples using the ion implantation at 190 keV with fluences up to 5 × 1015 ions·cm−2 followed by high-temperature annealing in vacuum
Summary
Nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) is a material that retains outstanding properties of single-crystalline diamond [1,2] It has high refractive index, low optical absorption scattering (especially in near-infrared region), the highest hardness and thermal conductivity, and it is biocompatible. Comparing the cohesive energies of the different structural models, a more probable erbium location in diamond is the substitutional site of carbon with one or three vacancies in the close vicinity of erbium atom. In both works low room-temperature photoluminescence (of erbium or europium) in diamond was detected. The diamond structure damaging (caused by ion implantation) and post-implantation recovery (annealing) is investigated by Raman spectroscopy
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