SCANNING-TUNNELING-MICROSCOPY OF DIAMOND IRRADIATED WITH HIGH-ENERGY IONS

The surfaces of boron-doped synthetic diamonds have been investigated by scanning tunnelling microscopy before and after irradiation at room temperature with Kr ions of an energy of about 1 MeV a.m.u.-1 and a dose of about 10(12) ions cm -2. The structures observed after irradiation showed diameters ranging from 3 to 20 nm and are attributed to single-ion tracks and multiple hits of ions at the same position on the surface. The distribution of the surface roughening by ion impact was found to be inhomogeneous on a submicron scale. This is proposed to be due to an inhomogeneous boron doping during the process of crystal growth.