Evolution of nitrogen structure in N-doped diamond crystal after high pressure and high temperature annealing treatment

In this paper, we have reported an investigation on the evolution of nitrogen structures in diamond crystals which contain nitrogen donor atoms in the range of 1500 ppm-1600 ppm following an annealing treatment at a high pressure of about 6.5 GPa and high temperatures of 1920 K-2120 K. The annealing treatment was found to completely transform nitrogen atoms originally arranged in a single substitutional form (C-center), into a pair form (A-center), indicated from infrared (IR) spectra. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra revealed that a small fraction of nitrogen atoms remained in C-center form, while some nitrogen atoms in A-center form were further transformed into N3 and H3 center structures. In addition, PL spectra have revealed the existence of two newly observed nitrogen-related structures with zero phonon lines at 611 nm and 711 nm. All these findings above are very helpful in understanding the formation mechanism of natural diamond stones of the Ia-type, which contains nitrogen atoms in an aggregated form.