Single crystal diamond membranes for nanoelectronics

TL;DR

This paper presents a scalable nanofabrication process for creating electrically active, nanoscale single crystal diamond membranes with integrated p-n junctions and optically active centers, enabling advanced nanoelectronic and photonic applications.

Contribution

It introduces a complete method to produce large, high-aspect-ratio, conductive diamond membranes with integrated optoelectronic functionalities, a significant advancement over previous limitations.

Findings

Successfully fabricated large-area, high-aspect-ratio diamond membranes.

Demonstrated vertical p-n junctions with ~10V onset voltage.

Created the first single crystal nanoscale diamond LED.

Abstract

Single crystal, nanoscale diamond membranes are highly sought after for a variety of applications including nanophotonics, nanoelectronics and quantum information science. However, so far, the availability of conductive diamond membranes remained an unreachable goal. In this work we present a complete nanofabrication methodology for engineering high aspect ratio, electrically active single crystal diamond membranes. The membranes have large lateral directions, exceeding 500x500 um2 and are only several hundreds of nanometers thick. We further realize vertical single crystal p-n junctions, made from the diamond membranes that exhibit onset voltages of ~ 10V and a current of several mA. Moreover, we deterministically introduce optically active color centers into the membranes, and demonstrate for the first time a single crystal nanoscale diamond LED. The robust and scalable approach to engineer the electrically active single crystal diamond membranes, offers new pathways for advanced nanophotonics, nanoelectronics and optomechanics devices employing diamond.