Ultrathin Nanocrystalline Diamond Films with Silicon Vacancy Color Centers via Seeding by 2 nm Detonation Nanodiamonds
At a Glance
Section titled âAt a Glanceâ| Metadata | Details |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 2017-10-13 |
| Journal | ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces |
| Authors | Ĺ tÄpĂĄn StehlĂk, M. Varga, Pavla Ĺ tenclovĂĄ, LukĂĄĹĄ OndiÄ, Martin LedinskĂ˝ |
| Institutions | Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Physics, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague |
| Citations | 65 |
Abstract
Section titled âAbstractâColor centers in diamonds have shown excellent potential for applications in quantum information processing, photonics, and biology. Here we report chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth of nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films as thin as 5-6 nm with photoluminescence (PL) from silicon-vacancy (SiV) centers at 739 nm. Instead of conventional 4-6 nm detonation nanodiamonds (DNDs), we prepared and employed hydrogenated 2 nm DNDs (zeta potential = +36 mV) to form extremely dense (âź1.3 Ă 10<sup>13</sup> cm<sup>-2</sup>), thin (2 Âą 1 nm), and smooth (RMS roughness < 0.8 nm) nucleation layers on an Si/SiO<sub>x</sub> substrate, which enabled the CVD growth of such ultrathin NCD films in two different and complementary microwave (MW) CVD systems: (i) focused MW plasma with an ellipsoidal cavity resonator and (ii) pulsed MW plasma with a linear antenna arrangement. Analytical ultracentrifuge, infrared and Raman spectroscopies, atomic force microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy are used for detailed characterization of the 2 nm H-DNDs and the nucleation layer as well as the ultrathin NCD films. We also demonstrate on/off switching of the SiV center PL in the NCD films thinner than 10 nm, which is achieved by changing their surface chemistry.