Journal
NANOSCALE
Volume 4, Issue 19, Pages 5960-5964Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c2nr31530k
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Funding
- Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (FWO) [G056810N]
- University of Antwerp, Belgium
- ERC
- Hercules Foundation
- European Union under Integrated Infrastructure Initiative [262348 ESMI]
- EU [PITN-GA-2009-238201]
- Collaborative Project DINAMO'' [245122]
- Flemish Government
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Thin films of heavily B-doped nanocrystalline diamond (B:NCD) have been investigated by a combination of high resolution annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy and spatially resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy performed on a state-of-the-art aberration corrected instrument to determine the B concentration, distribution and the local B environment. Concentrations of similar to 1 to 3 at.% of boron are found to be embedded within individual grains. Even though most NCD grains are surrounded by a thin amorphous shell, elemental mapping of the B and C signal shows no preferential embedding of B in these amorphous shells or in grain boundaries between the NCD grains, in contrast with earlier work on more macroscopic superconducting polycrystalline B-doped diamond films. Detailed inspection of the fine structure of the boron K-edge and comparison with density functional theory calculated fine structure energy-loss near-edge structure signatures confirms that the B atoms present in the diamond grains are substitutional atoms embedded tetrahedrally into the diamond lattice.
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