Optical, electrical and microstructural properties of nanocomposite Ag/diamond by Ag ion implantation and subsequent annealing

An optical-grade, free-standing diamond (FSD) film is prepared by home-made microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition reactor at a condition of input power 8 kW and gas pressure 18 kPa. Then, it is implanted with 80 key Ag ions up to a fluence of 5.0 x 1016 ions/cm(2). After implantation, a subsequent annealing in Ar ambient at 500 degrees C is carried out to fabricate Ag nanoparticles (NPs). Grazing incidence x-ray diffraction results clearly showed that Ag NPs with a (111) orientation are effectively formed after 500 degrees C annealing. Results from field emission scanning electron microscope and atomic force microscope observations indicated that Ag NPs could aggregate and grow on the surface of the diamond film during the annealing process. The Hall effects results showed that Ag-implanted FSD film exhibited an enhanced carrier mobility of 34.7 cm(2) V-1 S-1 after 500 degrees C annealing. Moreover, Raman spectroscopy results show that the damages of the Ag-implanted FSD film are essentially a little and the crystallinity is almost recovered by annealing, it is implied that the enhancement in carrier mobility could be attributed to the conductive paths provided by Ag NPs. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.