Efficient phosphorescence from synthetic diamonds

Synthetic diamonds have inspired much interest for their unique photophysical properties and versatile potential applications, but their phosphorescent phenomenon and mechanism have been paid much less attention. Here, phosphorescent diamonds with a lifetime of 5.4 s were synthesized by high-pressure and high-temperature method, and the diamonds exhibit an emission band at around 468 nm under the excitation wavelength of 230 nm. The quantum yield of the phosphorescent diamonds is about 4.7% at ambient temperature and atmosphere, which is the first report on the quantum yield of diamonds. The unique phosphorescence emission can be attributed to the radiative recombination from iron related donors and boron related acceptors. (c) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.