Synergistic influences of titanium, boron, and oxygen on large-size single-crystal diamond growth at high pressure and high temperature

Abstract

The synergistic influences of boron, oxygen, and titanium on growing large single-crystal diamonds are studied using different concentrations of B2O3 in a solvent–carbon system under 5.5 GPa–5.7 GPa and 1300 °C–1500 °C. It is found that the boron atoms are difficult to enter into the crystal when boron and oxygen impurities are doped using B2O3 without the addition of Ti atoms. However, high boron content is achieved in the doped diamonds that were synthesized with the addition of Ti. Additionally, boron–oxygen complexes are found on the surface of the crystal, and oxygen-related impurities appear in the crystal interior when Ti atoms are added into the FeNi–C system. The results show that the introduction of Ti atoms into the synthesis cavity can effectively control the number of boron atoms and the number of oxygen atoms in the crystal. This has important scientific significance not only for understanding the synergistic influence of boron, oxygen, and titanium atoms on the growth of diamond in the earth, but also for preparing the high-concentration boron or oxygen containing semiconductor diamond technologies.