Fabrication of Ultrathin Single-Crystal Diamond Membranes

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel fabrication method for ultrathin single-crystal diamond membranes, enabling advanced nanomechanical and photonic applications with layers as thin as 210 nm.

Contribution

The authors introduce a new double implant process combined with annealing and etching to produce the thinnest single-crystal diamond membranes to date.

Findings

Membranes as thin as 210 nm achieved.

Successful fabrication of test ring structures.

Potential for integration into nanomechanical and photonic devices.

Abstract

We demonstrate the fabrication of sub-micron layers of single-crystal diamond suitable for subsequent processing as demonstrated by this test ring structure. This method is a significant enabling technology for nanomechanical and photonic structures incorporating colour-centres. The process uses a novel double implant process, annealing and chemical etching to produce membranes of diamond from single-crystal starting material, the thinnest layers achieved to date are 210 nm thick.