Morphology and electronic structure in nitrogen-doped ultrananocrystalline diamond

Ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) thin films consist of 2–5 nm grains of pure sp3-bonded carbon and ∼0.5-nm-wide grain boundaries with a disordered mixture of sp2- and sp3-bonded carbon. UNCD exhibits many interesting materials properties that are a direct consequence of its nanoscale morphology....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2002-09, Vol.81 (12), p.2235-2237
Main Authors: Birrell, James, Carlisle, J. A., Auciello, O., Gruen, D. M., Gibson, J. M.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) thin films consist of 2–5 nm grains of pure sp3-bonded carbon and ∼0.5-nm-wide grain boundaries with a disordered mixture of sp2- and sp3-bonded carbon. UNCD exhibits many interesting materials properties that are a direct consequence of its nanoscale morphology. In this work, we report the changes in morphology induced in UNCD by the addition of nitrogen gas to the Ar/CH4 microwave plasma, as studied using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and nanoprobe-based electron energy-loss spectroscopy. Both the grain size and grain-boundary widths increase with the addition of N2, but the overall bonding structure in both regions remains mostly unchanged. These results are used to explain the variation of materials properties of nitrogen-incorporated UNCD films.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.1503153