4.6 Article

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

Journal

NANOSCALE ADVANCES
Volume 3, Issue 14, Pages 4156-4165

Publisher

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/d1na00136a

Keywords

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Funding

  1. BiophysiX project - CRT Foundation
  2. RESOLVE project - Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN)
  3. Single and entangled photon sources for quantum metrology (SEQUME) project from the EMPIR programme [20FUN05]
  4. European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programmes
  5. ASIDI project - Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN)
  6. European Commission H2020 FET Open Boheme grant [863179]
  7. Coordinated Research Project of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) [F11020]
  8. Piemonte Quantum Enabling Technologies (PiQuET) project - Piemonte Region within the Infra-P scheme (POR-FESR 2014-2020 program of the European Union)
  9. Ex post funding of research project of the University of Torino - Compagnia di San Paolo
  10. Intelligent fabrication of QUANTum devices in DIAmond by Laser and Ion Irradiation (QuantDia) project - Italian Ministry for Instruction, University and Research within the FISR 2019 program
  11. Training on LASer fabrication and ION implantation of DEFects as quantum emitters (LasIonDef) project - European Research Council under the Marie Skodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks program
  12. Single-photon sources as new quantum standards (SIQUST) project from the EMPIR programme [17FUN06]
  13. Beyond Classical Optical Metrology (BeCOMe) from the EMPIR programme [17FUN01]
  14. European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme
  15. Departments of Excellence - Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) [L. 232/2016]

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This study explores the possibility of creating full-sp(3) amorphous nanostructures within diamond crystals using ion-beam irradiation at room temperature, followed by an annealing process. It also discusses the mechanism of formation of an amorphous sp(2)-free phase in diamond.
Carbon exhibits a remarkable range of structural forms, due to the availability of sp(3), sp(2) and sp(1) chemical bonds. Contrarily to other group IV elements such as silicon and germanium, the formation of an amorphous phase based exclusively on sp(3) 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 sp(3)-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-sp(3) 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 sp(2)-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.

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