Strain-relaxed nanocrystalline diamond thin films with silicon vacancy centers using femtosecond laser irradiation for photonic applications

0579802 - FZÚ 2024 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Ondič, Lukáš - Trojánek, F. - Varga, Marián - Fait, Jan
Strain-relaxed nanocrystalline diamond thin films with silicon vacancy centers using femtosecond laser irradiation for photonic applications.
ACS Applied Nano Materials. Roč. 6, č. 5 (2023), s. 3268-3276. ISSN 2574-0970
R&D Projects: GA ČR GA19-14523S
Grant - others:AV ČR(CZ) Prémie Lumina quaeruntur 2020
Institutional support: RVO:68378271
Keywords : diamond * silicon vacancy centers * photoluminescence * fs-laser irradiation * strain * purification
OECD category: Condensed matter physics (including formerly solid state physics, supercond.)
Impact factor: 5.9, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Open access

Here we show that femtosecond (fs) laser pulses focused via a microscope objective on a nanocrystalline diamond thin film can be employed to reduce background photoluminescence intensity by a factor of 5 with respect to the luminescence of SiV centers. Raman spectra show that this decrease is mainly caused by laser ablation of the sp2-related carbon phase present in-between the grains. The reduction of the sp2 carbon phase also leads to a local decrease in the optical absorption followed by an almost twofold increase in the SiV emission peak intensity. Moreover, the fs-irradiation also entails the release of strain inside such a layer as manifested by the observed shift of the Raman diamond peak toward the value measured in the monocrystalline diamond and by a blue-shift of the zero-phonon-line peak position of the SiV centers. Such a finding might enable the improvement of the optical quality of the nanocrystalline diamond-based photonic nanostructures.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0348601