Laser annealing of neutron irradiated boron-10 isotope doped diamond

B-10 isotope doped p-type diamond epilayer grown by chemical vapor deposition on (110) oriented type IIa diamond single crystal substrate was subjected to neutron transmutation at a fluence of 2.4 x 10(20) thermal and 2.4 x 10(20) fast neutrons. After neutron irradiation, the epilayer and the diamond substrate were laser annealed using Nd-YAG laser irradiation with wave length, 266 nm and energy, 150 mJ per pulse. The neutron irradiated diamond epilayer and the substrate were characterized before and after laser annealing using different techniques. The characterization techniques include optical microscopy, secondary ion mass spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, Raman, photoluminescence and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy, and electrical sheet conductance measurement. The results indicate that the structure of the irradiation induced amorphous epilayer changes to disordered graphite upon laser annealing. The irradiated substrate retains the (110) crystalline structure with neutron irradiation induced defects.