† Corresponding author. E-mail:
Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51772120), the Project for Key Science and Technology Research of Henan Province, China (Grant Nos. 162102210275 and 172102210283), the Key Scientific Research Project in Colleges and Universities of Henan Province, China (Grant Nos. 18A430017 and 17A430020), and the Professional Practice Demonstration Base for Professional Degree Graduate in Material Engineering of Henan Polytechnic University, China (Grant No. 2016YJD03)
The large single-crystal diamond with FeS doping along the (111) face is synthesized from the FeNi–C system by the temperature gradient method (TGM) under high-pressure and high-temperature (HPHT). The effects of different FeS additive content on the shape, color, and quality of diamond are investigated. It is found that the (111) face of diamond is dominated and the (100) face of diamond disappears gradually with the increase of the FeS content. At the same time, the color of the diamond crystal changes from light yellow to gray-green and even gray-yellow. The stripes and pits corrosion on the diamond surface are observed to turn worse. The effects of FeS doping on the shape and surface morphology of diamond crystal are explained by the number of hang bonds in different surfaces of diamond. It can be shown from the test results of the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum that there exists an S element in the obtained diamond. The N element content values in different additive amounts of diamond are calculated. The XPS spectrum results demonstrate that our obtained diamond contains S elements that exist in S–C and S–C–O forms in a diamond lattice. This work contributes to the further understanding and research of FeS-doped large single-crystal diamond characterization.
Diamonds with graphene, carbon nanotubes, and so on are allotropes of carbon. Each carbon atom of diamond crystal in the sp3 hybrid orbit with four adjacent carbon atoms forms a carbon-carbon covalent bond, so diamond has many unique proprieties such as high hardness, high melting point, etc. In the 1950s, Bundy announced the first success in synthetic diamond,[1] which opened the door to exploring the applications of diamond in various fields such as modern industry, national defense, science and technology, mechanical processing, and electronic appliances.[2,3] Generally speaking, compared with traditional semiconductors, the diamond semiconductor possesses extremely excellent performances, such as wide band-gap, high thermal conductivity, and high dielectric breakdown field strength.[4–6] In order to improve the above characteristics, the influences of doping elements on the quality and properties of diamond and the related mechanism have been studied. These studies are helpful for controlling the quality of diamond synthesis so that the application scope of semiconductor diamond can be widened.
Pure diamond is an insulator. If it is successfully doped with some suitable impurity elements such as an acceptor or donor, the synthesized diamond will become a semiconductor. It can be indicated from the theoretical calculations of the first principles that N-type elements (N, P, As, Sb), S-type elements (S, Se, Te), and sulfur hydride as impurity defects in diamonds can provide donor levels.[7] In addition, the theoretical calculations based on atom superposition and the electron delocalization molecular-orbital method demonstrate that BS and NS in di-vacancy sites in diamond will provide shallow donor levels.[8] Kato et al. studied n-type thin film diamond with P doping.[9] It pointed out that the optimal ratio of methane to P vapor was able to grow a smooth, high-quality P doped film. John et al. discussed the synthesis, characteristics, and functions of B doping diamond, who pointed out that B doping diamond is an ideal electrical material.[10] Sally et al. reported that BS co-doping can promote the incorporation of S into diamonds with n- and p-type semiconductor properties, forming a p–n junction.[11] Hu et al. pointed out that the annealing temperature of 800 °C made P doping nano-diamond film a good n-type electrical conductor.[12] On the other hand, with the deepening of research on the doping of diamond thin films, a great many researches have been done on the doping modification of HPHT synthetic diamond. In order to improve the electrical properties of semiconductor diamond synthesized under HPHT, the effects of these impurities on the diamond quality, crystal growth rate, growth temperature, and semiconductor properties were observed in the process of diamond growth by doping different impurities. Additive impurities are both singly doped and co-doped, in which the additive elements mainly are B, S, N, P, etc. Palynaov et al. studied the nucleation kinetics of Mg and P doping diamond under HPHT, and they pointed out that the factors affecting the diamond nucleation and growth were pressure, temperature, and growth time.[13,14] Li et al. reported type-IIb B doping large diamond with P-type semiconducting properties; they pointed out that the crystal shapes tends to be single, and small pitting corrosion appears on the surface as the B content increases.[15] Gong et al. reported type-Ib P doping diamond with n-type semiconductor properties, and they pointed out that the diamond surface became rough and the growth rate decreased as the P content increases.[16]
Sakaguchi et al. successfully synthesized S doping thin-film diamonds with n-type semiconductor properties by the chemical vapor deposition method.[5,17] Yu et al.[18] and Sato and Katsura[19] used sulfur as a nonmetallic catalyst to synthesize type-Ib diamond under HPHT. However, the synthetic diamonds had incomplete crystal morphologies, small sizes, and a large number of growth defects on the surface. Zhang et al. reported that type-Ib or IIa with single-S doping and BS co-doping high-quality large diamonds with n- or p-type semiconductor properties were synthesized.[20,21] It is pointed out that there is no change in the color of type-Ib with S or BS co-doping. In contrast, the color of type-IIa diamond changes from colorless to blue and black with the increase of additive B content. The natural type-Ia diamond was based on the kimberlite as a growth environment, in which the sulfides were contained and played an important role in the growth of natural diamond.[22] Taking into account FeS as a sulfide consisting of Fe and S, both of which can be used as a synthetic diamond catalyst, FeS was used as an additive to explore the effects of FeS on single-crystal diamond synthesis under HPHT.
The experimental equipment was a homemade cubic anvil HPHT apparatus (CHPA SPD6 ×1200). The sample synthesis pressure was about 5.6 GPa and the synthesis temperature was about 1370 °C. The synthesized pressure for diamond was determined from the relationship between oil pressure and chamber pressure, which was based on high pressure phase change resistance established by the bismuth (Bi), barium (Ba), and thallium (TI). The synthesis temperature was measured based on the calibration of Pt.6% Rh–Pt 30% Rh thermocouple. The source of carbon was highly pure natural graphite powder (99.9% purity). The FeNi alloy slice (the weight ratio of Fe:Ni is 64:36) was used as the catalyst in the experiment. The additive ferrous sulfide (FeS) powder (99.9% purity) was evenly tiled between the first layer and the second layer of the four catalyst layers with a 0%–2% weight ratio of FeS– to carbon source. Under the effect of heat convection, FeS is uniformly dispersed in the molten catalyst. The (111)-surface single crystal diamond was selected to use as the seed. The schematic diagram of diamond growth cell is shown in Fig.
The synthesized sample was firstly boiled with dilute nitric acid to remove the catalyst alloy coating on the crystal surface and then boiled with a certain mixture of concentrated sulfuric acid and concentrated nitric acid to remove residual graphite and catalyst. The morphology, color, inclusions, and surface morphology of synthesized crystal were observed by optical microscope (OM) and scan electron microscope (SEM). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) (BrukerOptics/IFSHyperion 3000M) was used to ascertain whether C, N, and S are existent. The XPS measurements were used to detect the existence and state of S in the diamond lattice by the PHI X-tool instrument. The S concentration of diamond was counted by calculating the areas of S2p peak relative to C1s peak.
In order to observe the influence of FeS doping on the diamond quality, large diamonds with different additive dosages are synthesized under the same temperature and pressure. It can be seen in Table
According to the growth of V-shaped diamond, it is easy to know that controlling the growth temperature at a certain pressure can change the shape of abrasive grade diamond (Film Growth Method, Abbreviated FGM) from cubic to cubic-octahedral to octahedron.[23–25] In contrast, the shapes of large single-crystal diamonds by TGM at different temperatures are plate, tower, and spire. In this paper, a large single-crystal diamond with plate shape is synthesized at 1370 °C and 5.6 GPa. Large diamonds are synthesized with different amounts of FeS doping (see Table
Zhang et al.[29] used the bald-point model to explain the mechanism of the effects of B doping on the (100) faces and (111) faces of diamond, which can be used to explain the similar phenomena in this study. As shown in Fig.
There are six diamonds doped by FeS with different amounts of 0%, 0.5%, 0.7%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2%, respectively (seen in Fig.
The large diamonds synthesized are type-Ib diamonds with a light yellow color, in which the N atoms existed in the form of a single substitute atom.[32] With increasing the amount of additive FeS, a number of S atoms may enter into the diamond lattice as well. The nuclear electron distributions of the N and S are different. When they are illuminated, the electron absorbs part of the energy to produce a transition from the low energy ground state to the high energy excited state. As a result, the color changes of large diamond doping FeS is observed. The un-doped type-Ib large diamond is light yellow in color. With the amount of FeS doping increasing, the color of diamond changes from gray-yellow to gray-green. Obviously, inclusions are seen at the amount of 2% FeS, which may be due to too much S destroying the diamond lattice.
In order to further observe the crystal surface morphology, the SEM photographs are taken under a magnification of 2000 times. The SEM images for the front and side surfaces of large diamonds in Fig.
From Figs.
The curve a–curve f in Fig.
Our researcher group has determined the S characteristic peak with a wavenumber of 847 cm−1 in the B–S co-doped diamond synthesized in the FeNiCo–C–S system.[35] On the contrary, the S–O characteristic peak with a wavenumber of 885 cm−1 is detected in this paper. The distinction between the two characteristic peaks is determined by whether or not the additive boron is used and also by the difference between the two types of additives (S and FeS) and catalyst (FeNiCo and FeNi) to be used.
The XPS measurements are used to detect the existence and state of S in the structure of obtained diamond. Besides, the relative content of the S element is calculated. The XPS results for different amounts of the diamond additive FeS are shown in Fig.
In this paper, the effects of FeS doping in the FeNi–C system on single-crystal diamond grown along the (111) plane are investigated. With the increase of FeS content, the face morphology, color, and inclusion of diamond change obviously. It is found that the (111) face of diamond is dominated and the (100) face of diamond disappears gradually with the increase of the FeS content. At the same time the color of the diamond crystal changes from light yellow to gray-green and even gray-yellow. The stripes and pits corrosion on the diamond surface turn worse, correspondingly. According to the FTIR spectrum, there appears an S–O characteristic peak with a wavenumber of 885 cm−1. Besides, the XPS spectra demonstrate that our obtained diamonds contain S, C, and O elements in lattice structures. As the amount of additive FeS increases, the concentration of S atoms increases continuously. In summary, S atoms enter into the diamond lattice, and thus affect the bonding of C atom. This experiment lays a foundation for the further synthesis of sulfide doped large single-crystal diamond.
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