Behavior of nitrogen-related luminescence centers in laser-cut single-crystalline diamond under irradiation with keV electron beam

Abstract

We have found that several nitrogen-related luminescence centers appear at 389 nm, 503 nm (H3 center), 575 nm (NV0 center), 637 nm (NV- center) in single-crystalline Ib diamond cut by means of a YAG laser irradiation process, followed by a suitable hydrogen microwave-plasma treatment, and that cathodoluminescence peaks related to these centers substantially change in intensity by irradiating the sample with 15-keV electron beam (EB). The relative number of 389-nm centers originating from a pair of a substitutional nitrogen atom and an adjacent interstitial carbon atom increased while the concentrations of the vacancy-related centers were reduced with increasing 15-keV EB doses. These facts indicate that both the process-induced self-interstitials and the vacancies in the diamond rather easily moved to more preferential positions to form their stabler defect states, being suggestive of possibility to control densities of NV and NV-related centers.