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Tailoring the electronic states of the dielectric oxide/diamond interface is critical to the development of next generation semiconductor devices like high-power high-frequency field-effect transistors. In this work, we investigate the electronic states of the TiO2/diamond 2 × 1–(100) interface by using first principles total energy calculations. Based on the calculation of the chemical potentials for the TiO2/diamond interface, it is observed that the hetero-interfaces with the C-OTi configuration or with two O vacancies are the most energetically favorable structures under the O-rich condition and under Ti-rich condition, respectively. The band structure and density of states of both TiO2/diamond and TiO2/H-diamond hetero-structures are calculated. It is revealed that there are considerable interface states at the interface of the anatase TiO2/diamond hetero-structure. By introducing H on the diamond surface, the interface states are significantly suppressed. A type-II alignment band structure is disclosed at the interface of the TiO2/diamond hetero-structure. The valence band offset increases from 0.6 to 1.7 eV when H is introduced at the TiO2/diamond interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) has been grown using a nanodiamond seeding technique, leading to a dense form of this material, with grain sizes around 100 nm. The electrical properties of both intrinsic and lightly boron-doped NCD have been investigated using impedance spectroscopy and Hall effect measurements. For intrinsic material, both grain boundaries and grains themselves initially contribute to the frequency dependant impedance values recorded. However, boundary conduction can be removed and the films become highly resistive. Interestingly, the ac properties of these films are also excellent with a dielectric loss value ∼0.004 for frequencies up to 10 MHz. The dielectric properties of these NCD films are therefore as good as high quality large grain polycrystalline diamond films. In the case of boron-doped material, p-type material with good carrier mobility values (10–50 cm2/V s) can be produced at carrier concentrations around 1017 cm-3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steel is the most widely used material in engineering for its cost/performance ratio and coatings are routinely applied on its surface to further improve its properties. Diamond coated steel parts are an option for many demanding industrial applications through prolonging the lifetime of steel parts, enhancement of tool performance as well as the reduction of wear rates. Direct deposition of diamond on steel using conventional chemical vapour deposition (CVD) processes is known to give poor results due to the preferential formation of amorphous carbon on iron, nickel and other elements as well as stresses induced from the significant difference in the thermal expansion coefficients of those materials. This article reports a novel approach of deposition of nanocrystalline diamond coatings on high-speed steel (M42) substrates using a multi-structured molybdenum (Mo) - tungsten (W) interlayer to form steel/Mo/Mo-W/W/diamond sandwich structures which overcome the adhesion problem related to direct magnetron sputtering deposition of pure tungsten. Surface, interface and tribology properties were evaluated to understand the role of such an interlayer structure. The multi-structured Mo-W interlayer has been proven to improve the adhesion between diamond films and steel substrates by acting as an effective diffusion barrier during the CVD diamond deposition [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reported a three-dimensional microfluidic channel structure, which was fabricated by Yb:YAG 1026 nm femtosecond laser irradiation on a single-crystalline diamond substrate. The femtosecond laser irradiation energy level was optimized at 100 kHz repetition rate with a sub-500 femtosecond pulse duration. The morphology and topography of the microfluidic channel were characterized by a scanning electron microscope and an atomic force microscope. Raman spectroscopy indicated that the irradiated area was covered by graphitic materials. By comparing the cross-sectional profiles before/after removing the graphitic materials, it could be deduced that the microfluidic channel has an average depth of ∼410 nm with periodical ripples perpendicular to the irradiation direction. This work proves the feasibility of using ultra-fast laser inscription technology to fabricate microfluidic channels on biocompatible diamond substrates, which offers a great potential for biomedical sensing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigated the effect of hydrogen termination on the electrical properties and impedance spectra of detonation nanodiamond. The impedance spectra revealed that the hydrogen-termination process increases the electrical conductivity by four orders of magnitude at room temperature. An equivalent circuit has been proposed to correlate with the conduction mechanism. Arrhenius plot showed that there were two different activation energy levels located at 0.089 eV and 0.63 eV between 50 °C and 400 °C. The possible physical mechanism corresponding to these activation energy levels has been discussed. Hydrogen-terminated detonation nanodiamond has been further annealed at different temperatures prior to FTIR and XPS measurements in order to understand their thermal stability. The results demonstrated that the surface oxidization occurred between 100 °C and 150 °C. However, the C-H bonds could partially survive when the temperature reaches 400 °C in air. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MPECVD) to carbonize an electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor to form carbon fibers. Scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were used to characterize the fibers at different evolution stages. It was found that MPECVD-carbonized PAN fibers do not exhibit any significant change in the fiber diameter, whilst conventionally carbonized PAN fibers show a 33% reduction in the fiber diameter. An additional coating of carbon nanowalls (CNWs) was formed on the surface of the carbonized PAN fibers during the MPECVD process without the assistance of any metallic catalysts. The result presented here may have a potential to develop a novel, economical, and straightforward approach towards the mass production of carbon fibrous materials containing CNWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impedance spectroscopy has been used to investigate conductivity within boron-doped diamond in an intrinsic/delta-doped/intrinsic (i-δ-i) multilayer structure. For a 5 nm thick delta layer, three conduction pathways are observed, which can be assigned to transport within the delta layer and to two differing conduction paths in the i-layers adjoining the delta layer. For transport in the i-layers, thermal trapping/detrapping processes can be observed, and only at the highest temperature investigated (673 K) can transport due to a single conduction process be seen. Impedance spectroscopy is an ideal nondestructive tool for investigating the electrical characteristics of complex diamond structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanometer-scale diamonds formed using a detonation process are an interesting class of diamond materials. Commercially supplied material is highly aggregated with ∼5 nm diamond crystals forming particles with micron sizes. Previous models have suggested that nondiamond carbon is incorporated between the crystals, which would reduce the electrical and chemical usefulness of this form of diamond. However, using impedance spectroscopy we have shown that at temperatures below 350 °C the form of detonation nanodiamond being studied is a near to ideal dielectric, implying a full sp3 form. At temperatures above this the surfaces of the diamond crystals may support some nondiamond carbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dielectric behavior of nanostructured diamond films has been investigated by using an impedance analyzer up to 500 °C. Impedance data are presented in the form of the Cole-Cole plot. It is found that: (i) the resistivity contributed both from bulk grain interior and grain boundary decreases with increasing temperature; (ii) above 250 °C, the impurities at grain boundaries are thermally activated, and thus contribute to the dielectric relaxation; and (iii) the electrical conductivity of diamond films follows an Arrhenius law with an activation energy transition from 0.13 to 0.67 eV at 250 °C. Similar activation energy is found for the Arrhenius plot of relaxation frequencies from 0.14 to 0.73 eV. The dielectric transition is explained as the change of crystal field caused by the thermal expansion or by surface bond contraction of nanosized particles. © 2001 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]