TY - JOUR

T1 - Germanium

T2 - A new catalyst for diamond synthesis and a new optically active impurity in diamond

AU - Palyanov, Yuri N.

AU - Kupriyanov, Igor N.

AU - Borzdov, Yuri M.

AU - Surovtsev, Nikolay V.

PY - 2015/10/5

Y1 - 2015/10/5

N2 - Diamond attracts considerable attention as a versatile and technologically useful material. For many demanding applications, such as recently emerged quantum optics and sensing, it is important to develop new routes for fabrication of diamond containing defects with specific optical, electronic and magnetic properties. Here we report on successful synthesis of diamond from a germanium-carbon system at conditions of 7GPa and 1,500-1,800°C. Both spontaneously nucleated diamond crystals and diamond growth layers on seeds were produced in experiments with reaction time up to 60h. We found that diamonds synthesized in the Ge-C system contain a new optical centre with a ZPL system at 2.059eV, which is assigned to germanium impurities. Photoluminescence from this centre is dominated by zero-phonon optical transitions even at room temperature. Our results have widened the family of non-metallic elemental catalysts for diamond synthesis and demonstrated the creation of germanium-related optical centres in diamond.

AB - Diamond attracts considerable attention as a versatile and technologically useful material. For many demanding applications, such as recently emerged quantum optics and sensing, it is important to develop new routes for fabrication of diamond containing defects with specific optical, electronic and magnetic properties. Here we report on successful synthesis of diamond from a germanium-carbon system at conditions of 7GPa and 1,500-1,800°C. Both spontaneously nucleated diamond crystals and diamond growth layers on seeds were produced in experiments with reaction time up to 60h. We found that diamonds synthesized in the Ge-C system contain a new optical centre with a ZPL system at 2.059eV, which is assigned to germanium impurities. Photoluminescence from this centre is dominated by zero-phonon optical transitions even at room temperature. Our results have widened the family of non-metallic elemental catalysts for diamond synthesis and demonstrated the creation of germanium-related optical centres in diamond.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84943339304&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/srep14789

DO - 10.1038/srep14789

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84943339304

VL - 5

JO - Scientific Reports

JF - Scientific Reports

SN - 2045-2322

M1 - 14789

ER -