Synthesis of Diamonds with High-Brightness SiV– Centers in the FeNi-Al-SiC System

• Published in: Crystal growth & design 2024-05, Vol.24 (9), p.3910-3917
• Main Authors: Lai, Shoulong, Lin, Yalu, Shen, Weixia, Fang, Chao, Wang, Ye, Zhang, Yuewen, Chen, Liangchao, Wang, Qianqian, Wan, Biao, Jia, Xiaopeng, Zhang, Zhuangfei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1528-7483; 1528-7505
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.cgd.4c00210

Diamonds containing high-brightness, high-density negatively charged silicon vacancy (SiV–) color centers have promising applications in fluorescence labeling, weak magnetic field detection, and sensing. In this study, diamonds with SiV– color centers, featuring a minimum crystal dimension of approximately 10 μm, were prepared within the FeNi-Al system by employing silicon carbide (SiC) as the carbon and silicon source. The synthesis conditions entailed a pressured environment of 5.8 GPa, an elevated temperature of 1500 °C, and a very short growth duration span of 10 min. Impressively, the luminescence intensity attributed to SiV– color centers within the crystal reaches up to 60,000 cps, thereby signifying a discernible advance in this field. Moreover, the luminescence intensity of SiV– color centers also attains a remarkable homogeneity across diverse crystal instances with a normalized intensity of Raman peaks reaching up to a noteworthy 5.1 and a half-peak width as narrow as 3.6 nm at room temperature. These results prove that our delivered diamonds containing SiV– color centers attain remarkable spectral purity and exhibit superlative luminescence attributes. Our work presents an expedient, efficacious, and cost-effective modality for the systematic batch production of industrial-grade SiV– color center-integrated diamonds for further advanced diamond photonics.