Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 105, Issue 33, Pages 11619-11622Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0801520105
Keywords
superconductivity; transmission electron microscopy
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Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG
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The discovery of superconductivity in polycrystalline boron-doped diamond (BDD) synthesized under high pressure and high temperatures [Ekimov, et al. (2004) Nature 428:542-545] has raised a number of questions on the origin of the superconducting state. It was suggested that the heavy boron doping of diamond eventually leads to superconductivity. To justify such statements more detailed information on the microstructure of the composite materials and on the exact boron content in the diamond grains is needed. For that we used high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy. For the studied superconducting BDD samples synthesized at high pressures and high temperatures the diamond grain sizes are approximate to 1-2 mu m with a boron content between 0.2 (2) and 0.5 (1) at %. The grains are separated by 10- to 20-nm-thick layers and triangular-shaped pockets of predominantly (at least 95 at %) amorphous boron. These results render superconductivity caused by the heavy boron doping in diamond highly unlikely.
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