Covalently‐Bonded Diaphite Nanoplatelet with Engineered Electronic Properties of Diamond

Abstract

Diamond, as a highly promising “extreme” semiconductor material,necessitates electronic property engineering to unleash its full potentialin electronic and photonic devices. In this work, the diaphite nanoplatelet,consisting of (1̄11) planes of diamond nanoplatelet covalently bondedwith graphite (0001) planes, is facilely synthesized using one-step microwaveplasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition method. The high-energy plasmacreated by the pillar plays a crucial role in the formation. Importantly, alteredelectronic and optical properties are determined in the diaphite nanoplateletthrough electron energy loss spectrum, density functional theory calculations,and cathodoluminescence spectroscopy. It is revealed that the strongsp3/sp2-hybridized interfacial covalent bonding in the diaphite nanoplateletinduces the electron transfer from diamond to graphite. This modulates theelectronic structure of the near-interface layer of diamond and triggers a newlocal trapping band below the conduction band minimum within the bandgap.Consequently, the covalently-bonded diaphite exhibits a different opticalemission characteristic ranging from 2.5 to 3.64 eV, featuring a significantpeak blueshift of 430 meV compared to the H-terminated diamond. This workdemonstrates a novel method to engineer the electronic properties of diamond,opening avenues for functional semiconductor device applications of diamond