Photoluminescence Spectroscopy of Diamond Films

Abstract

ABSTRACTPhotoluminescence spectroscopy has been used to characterize polycrystalline diamond films prepared by filament assisted chemical deposition and by combustion (in an oxygenacetylene flame) techniques. The luminescence spectra of the chemical vapor deposited films are dominated by a defect band possibly associated with a neutral vacancy with a strong zero phonon line at 1.68 eV and weak phonon replicas at lower energies. The combustion films exhibit two additional luminescence bands with zero phonon lines at 1.95 and 2.16 eV. The 1.95 eV band has been tentatively assigned to a nitrogen-vacancy pair. We have also observed a strong dependence of the PL spectra radially across a given combustion film and associated this with details of the flame chemistry.