Submit to Crystals Review for Crystals Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Diamonds: Growth, Properties and Applications

Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Mineralogical Crystallography and Biomineralization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (22 May 2023) | Viewed by 9762

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Christian Giese

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Fraunhofer IAF, Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics, 79108 Freiburg, Germany
Interests: semiconductor technology development; electron beam lithography; diamond devices; color centres; optical metrology; quantum sensing

Dr. Peter Knittel

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Fraunhofer IAF, Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics, 79108 Freiburg, Germany
Interests: diamond growth; materials characterisation; hyphenated techniques; quantum sensing; electrochemistry; scanning probe microscopy; surface analysis

Dr. Xavier Vidal

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Fraunhofer IAF, Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics, 79108 Freiburg, Germany
Interests: quantum sensing; diamond devices; nitrogen-vacancy centers; magnetometry; quantum imaging; microscopy; non-linear optics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Due to its outstanding properties, diamond, as the hardest natural material on earth, exhibits tremendous potential in a number of fields, such as mechanical machining, medical diagnostics, water treatment, radiation detection, thermal management, high-power optics, high-power electronics, electrochemistry quantum technology, and many more.

During the last few decades, improvements in the synthesis of diamond materials have propelled an expanding field of applications, enabling the reproducible growth of particles on the nanometer scale, millimeter-sized single crystals obtained by high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) synthesis, or even wafer-sized single crystals obtained by heteroepitaxy. In situ doping during chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth enables the realization of complex diamond film structures, e.g., for semiconductor devices, such as Schottky diodes or field-effect transistors (FETs), with the prospect of reaching unparalleled power densities.

At the same time, the continuous improvements in hetero-epitaxial growth present avenues in the field of wafer-scale diamond processing. Additionally, diamond is well-established in the machining industry and is used as a robust electrode material with a large potential window in electrochemistry or electroanalysis.

The past few years have seen an increasing research focus on the deliberate incorporation of color centers in diamond crystal. Due to their robust crystal matrix, the quantum properties of such color centers can be observed and manipulated at room temperature, which paves the way for diamond-based quantum technologies. Diamond allows for the engineering of solid-state qubits for quantum computing or sub-nanometer magnetic pressure or temperature sensors, while the wide transparency window also makes it attractive for a range of integrated photonic devices.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to gather exciting, novel results from diamond growth, characterization, and the ever-growing field of diamond applications.

Dr. Christian Giese
Dr. Peter Knittel
Dr. Xavier Vidal
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Crystals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

diamond synthesis
heteroepitaxy
nanodiamonds
high-power optics
high-power electronics
electrochemistry
quantum technology
color centers
nitrogen vacancy defect

Published Papers (5 papers)

Download All Papers

Order results

Result details

Show export options Show export options

Select all

Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

14 pages, 4579 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Variation in Gemological Characteristics in Tsavorites with Different Tones from East Africa

by Yuanmeng Ma and Ying Guo

Crystals 2022, 12(11), 1677; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12111677 - 20 Nov 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1822

Abstract

In this paper, the influencing factors of the color and the gemological changes of tsavorites with different tones from East Africa were studied. The gemological characteristics of 35 different green tones in tsavorites were collected based on the results of color measurement, X-ray fluorescence, ultraviolet–visible, infrared and Raman spectroscopy. V and Cr are responsible for the samples’ color: with the increase of vanadium content, lightness L* and chroma C* decreased while hue h° increased, and the hue tends to blueish green. The color of tsavorite is related significantly to the absorption bands at about 430 nm and 605 nm through the UV-VIS spectrum. Under long-wave ultraviolet light, the samples show inert or red fluorescence. The G, H, and I peaks of the infrared spectrum are shifted towards the long-wave direction with the reduction of the V content. The peaks at 275 nm, 412 nm and 545 nm on the Raman spectrum tend to move towards the direction of decreasing wavelength with the increase of V content. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diamonds: Growth, Properties and Applications)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 4199 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Pseudovertical Schottky Diodes on Heteroepitaxially Grown Diamond

by Jürgen Weippert, Philipp Reinke, Fouad Benkhelifa, Heiko Czap, Christian Giese, Lutz Kirste, Patrik Straňák, Jan Kustermann, Jan Engels and Vadim Lebedev

Crystals 2022, 12(11), 1626; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12111626 - 13 Nov 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1432

Abstract

Substrates comprising heteroepitaxially grown single-crystalline diamond epilayers were used to fabricate pseudovertical Schottky diodes. These consisted of Ti/Pt/Au contacts on p

^{-}

Boron-doped diamond (BDD) layers (10

^{15}

–10

^{16}

^{- 3}

) with varying thicknesses countered by ohmic contacts on underlying [...] Read more.

Substrates comprising heteroepitaxially grown single-crystalline diamond epilayers were used to fabricate pseudovertical Schottky diodes. These consisted of Ti/Pt/Au contacts on p

^{-}

Boron-doped diamond (BDD) layers (10

^{15}

–10

^{16}

^{- 3}

) with varying thicknesses countered by ohmic contacts on underlying p

^{+}

layers (10

^{19}

–10

^{20}

^{- 3}

) on the quasi-intrinsic diamond starting substrate. Whereas the forward current exhibited a low-voltage shunt conductance and, for higher voltages, thermionic emission behavior with systematic dependence on the p

^{-}

film thickness, the reverse leakage current appeared to be space-charge-limited depending on the existence of local channels and thus local defects, and depending less on the thickness. For the Schottky barriers

ϕ_{S B}

, a systematic correlation to the ideality factors n was observed, with an “ideal” n = 1 Schottky barrier of

ϕ_{S B}

= 1.43 eV. For the best diodes, the breakdown field reached 1.5 MV/cm. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diamonds: Growth, Properties and Applications)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 12039 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spectroscopic Study of the 3107 cm⁻¹ and 3143 cm⁻¹ H-Related Defects in Type Ib Diamonds

by Zhonghua Song, Jun Su, Wenfang Zhu, Taijin Lu, Yang Wang and Shengmei He

Crystals 2022, 12(10), 1352; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12101352 - 25 Sep 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1359

Abstract

Hydrogen-related infrared absorption bands in natural diamonds have been extensively investigated and widely used to identify natural, treated, and synthetic diamonds grown by high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techniques. However, the evolutional behavior of the hydrogen-related defects and the relationship between the hydrogen-related and nitrogen-related defects in natural and HPHT-treated Ib diamonds are unclear. In this article, the hydrogen-related defects, particularly the infrared absorption bands of 3107 cm⁻¹ and 3143 cm⁻¹ in natural type Ib diamonds and HPHT-treated natural diamonds, were systematically investigated using spectroscopic techniques. It was found that the 1405 cm⁻¹ absorption intensity was directly proportional to the 3107 cm⁻¹ absorption intensity; the 3143 cm⁻¹ absorption intensity increased with the increase in the 3107 cm⁻¹ absorption intensity, but there was no strict linear relationship between them. The 3143 cm⁻¹ band was not only related to the intensity of the 3107 cm⁻¹ but also related to the value of N_C/N_A in natural diamonds. When the value of N_C/N_A was less than one, the 3143 cm⁻¹ band was more pronounced. After high-temperature annealing, the absorption intensities of the 3107 cm⁻¹ and 3143 cm⁻¹ in natural type Ib diamonds became stronger. However, in HPHT synthetic diamonds, only a 3107 cm⁻¹ defect was introduced with the increase in the A centers in the diamonds. The difference and the detectability of the 3143 cm⁻¹ and 3107 cm⁻¹ bands investigated could be efficiently used to identify natural type Ib diamonds from their counterparts, including the synthetic diamonds and the HPHT-treated diamonds. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diamonds: Growth, Properties and Applications)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 6154 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Morphological and Surface Microtopographic Features of HPHT-Grown Diamond Crystals with Contact Twinning

by Kaiyue Sun, Taijin Lu, Mingyue He, Zhonghua Song, Jian Zhang and Jie Ke

Crystals 2022, 12(9), 1264; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12091264 - 06 Sep 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2402

Abstract

Gem-grade twinned high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) synthetic diamond crystals are rare. Hence, few investigations on their morphological features and formation have been reported. In this article, the morphological and surface microtopographic features of HPHT synthetic-diamond crystals contact twinning is detailed and investigated. It indicates that twins of diamond forming and nucleating during the early stages of the growth and the development of {100} and {111} growth sectors on either side of such boundaries proceeds independently, which affects the final morphology of the diamond crystals. According to the different features of crystal macroscopic morphological properties, two kinds of twin model have been established. The formation of twin crystals changed the lattice of diamonds with face-centered cubic dimensions. The type of diamond lattice at the twin boundary is hexagonal and closely packed, which has potential for further developing the application of synthetic diamond twin crystals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diamonds: Growth, Properties and Applications)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

15 pages, 1498 KiB

Open AccessReview

Studies of Dislocations in Type Ib, Type IIa HPHT and CVD Single Crystal Diamonds

by Devi Shanker Misra

Crystals 2023, 13(4), 657; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst13040657 - 11 Apr 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2041

Abstract

In this review, the X-ray topography results of various types of single crystal diamonds (SCDs) are reported. Dislocations and dislocation bundles are present in all types of SCDs, the only exception being type IIa high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) SCDs. The technology of growing HPHT type IIa SCDs has advanced to a level where the samples show almost no dislocations or dislocation bundles. However, very few groups appear to have perfected the process of HPHT growth of type IIa SCDs. There appears to be a characteristic difference in the dislocations present in type Ib HPHT and chemical vapor deposited (CVD) SCDs. The dislocations in CVD SCDs are mostly in aggregate form, while in HPHT type Ib diamonds there are line dislocations which propagate in <111> or <112> directions. The CVD SCDs growth appears to be in the early stage in terms of the control of dislocations and dislocation bundles, compared to other semiconductor wafers. The dislocations and dislocation bundles and aggregates in SCDs limit their applications in electronic and optical devices. For instance, high-power laser windows must have low dislocations and dislocation bundles. For electronic devices such as high-power diodes, dislocations reduce the breakdown voltage of SCDs, limiting their applications. The knowledge of dislocations, their identification and their origin are, therefore, of utmost importance for the applications of SCDs, be they HPHT or CVD grown. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diamonds: Growth, Properties and Applications)

► Show Figures

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Diamonds: Growth, Properties and Applications

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (5 papers)

Research

Review

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI