Ion beam-induced damage in diamond: Fundamental understanding and practical applications

Abstract

The effect that ion impact has on the diamond structure is, beyond its general academic interest, of great importance in many diamond-related technologies such as ion-implantation; CVD diamond growth under bias conditions; ion-beam deposition of amorphous DLC; ion-beam-assisted deposition and any kind of ion-beam-induced diamond processing (e.g.,etching, sputtering). These effects are investigated by monitoring the sample resistance as a function of ion mass, energy and diamond substrate temperature. It is shown that, at a critical dose Dc, a percolative conductive pathway is formed between graphitized (or partially graphitized) regions around each ion track. Molecular dynamic computer simul..