In situ study of annealing-induced strain relaxation in diamond nanoparticles using Bragg coherent diffraction imaging

S O Hruszkewycz,C P Anderson,F J Heremans,R Harder,A Ulvestad,D D Awschalom,P Andrich,W Cha,P H Fuoss

doi:10.1063/1.4974865

Abstract

We observed changes in morphology and internal strain state of commercial diamond nanocrystals during high-temperature annealing. Three nanodiamonds were measured with Bragg coherent x-ray diffraction imaging, yielding three-dimensional strain-sensitive images as a function of time/temperature. Up to temperatures of 800 °C, crystals with Gaussian strain distributions with a full-width-at-half-maximum of less than 8×10−4 were largely unchanged, and annealing-induced strain relaxation was observed in a nanodiamond with maximum lattice distortions above this threshold. X-ray measurements found changes in nanodiamond morphology at temperatures above 600 °C that are consistent with graphitization of the surface, a result verified with ensemble Raman measurements.

Highlights

Nanoscale quantum sensing has developed into a promising field with a wide range of applications both in physical and biological systems
The NV center itself can be described in terms of a single spin with energy levels well isolated within the diamond band-gap, which results in long spin coherence times (T 2) at room temperature.[1]
Despite the promising applications demonstrated to date, a critical challenge remains: scaling the creation of diamond nanostructures with NV centers that maintain long spin coherence times

Summary

Introduction

Nanoscale quantum sensing has developed into a promising field with a wide range of applications both in physical and biological systems. In situ study of annealing-induced strain relaxation in diamond nanoparticles using Bragg coherent diffraction imaging

Results

Conclusion