Growth of High-Purity Low-Strain Fluorescent Nanodiamonds

Abstract

Fluorescent emitters in diamond have farreaching potential applications in areas like quantum information, advanced biosensing, and materials research (especially magnetic and superconductor materials). However, many of these applications are limited by imperfections in commercially available fluorescent nanodiamonds (FNDs) due to paramagnetic impurities and crystal lattice strains. These limitations are a direct consequence of the way fluorescent nanodiamonds are produced. Here, we show that for high pressure growth, at a relatively low temperature of 400 °C, we can produce high-purity and low-strain FNDs after standard irradiation and annealing treatments. This work is a milestone toward the engineering of high-quality ultrasmall fluorescent nanodiamonds.

Hyperfine Interactions in the NV-13C Quantum Registers in Diamond Grown from the Azaadamantane Seed

“…Since ODMR spectra can be used to control the diamond growth from certain isotopical seeds, it would be instructive to simulate the examples of ODMR spectra that can be observed for the above-described NV- 13 C systems. As was noted in the Introduction, recently the ODMR spectra of nanodiamonds grown from not modified isotopicallyazaadamantane were obtained in the experimental work [ 31 ] where Figure 2 c shows the spectrum of nanodiamond containing two NV centers. The spectrum was taken in the presence of low external magnetic field B ~ 10 G of unknown direction and it consisted of four lines having rather large linewidths ~10–15 MHz.…”

“…Here, following earlier work [ 31 ], we restrict ourselves to considering the 2- and 1-azaadamantane molecules as a seed for diamond growth, and will study their various isotopic derivatives containing the 13 C nuclear spin in different positions. An example of the location of the both molecular seeds in the lattice of a grown nanodiamond are shown in Figure 2 a,c.…”

“…Although these studies demonstrated the promise of using diamondoids in seeded diamond growth, one of the central challenges in them was the thermal decomposition of the seed at high P-T conditions of experiments. This problem was overcome recently in [ 31 ], where a low-temperature (T = 4000, P = 10 GPa) slow (24 h) synthesis of high-quality nanodiamonds was implemented in a laser-heated diamond anvil cell [ 32 ] using 2-azaadamantane as a seed and some other less thermally stable hydrocarbon molecules for crystal growth. After irradiation with electrons and subsequent annealing, the resulting nanodiamonds revealed the presence of bright NV centers for which high-contrast spectra of optically detectable magnetic resonance (ODMR) were obtained [ 31 ].…”

High Temperature Treatment of Diamond Particles Toward Enhancement of Their Quantum Properties

“…Control of synthesis is critical to material optimization as it can potentially allow for control of nitrogen content and distribution, metallic impurity content and distribution, and overall crystal lattice quality. While some academic effort [23][24][25][26] has been devoted toward improved synthesis, the limited access, required expertise, and high cost of growth instrumentation (specifically high-pressure high-temperature presses) has limited a greater exploration of this topic; however, this tendency is beginning to shift as the industrial synthetic diamond community has begun to take notice of the emerging potential applications of diamond particles containing color centers. Investigations into the impact of processing conditions and their influence on the quantum properties of fluorescent diamond particles have been performed and continue to be one of the key research topics [27][28][29][30][31][32][33].…”

A New Pressure‐induced Mechanism of Polyvinyl Chloride Pyrolysis with Formation of Nanodiamonds

“…[1] This new approach for mass synthesis of nanodiamonds opens up unique possibilities for exploring quantum electronic and phonon properties of nanodiamonds, both on individual crystals and their arrays. Diamondoid molecules and their derivatives are frequently considered as “seeds”, [2–6] “building blocks” [7,8] or “pre‐nuclear site agents” [9] for diamond nucleation and growth, due to their structural similarity to diamond lattice. Yet, the questions arise, whether diamond‐like structure of precursors is a prime condition for nanodiamond formation, and how the chemical reactions with halogen heteroatoms promote nucleation of diamond during pyrolysis.…”