Recoil Implantation Using Gas-Phase Precursor Molecules

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel recoil implantation technique using gas-phase precursors, enabling the creation of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond and broadening the method's applicability across the periodic table.

Contribution

The study demonstrates recoil implantation with gas-phase precursors, overcoming the limitation of solid thin film sources and expanding the technique's potential applications.

Findings

Successfully fabricated NV centers in diamond using gas-phase nitrogen precursors.

Expanded recoil implantation applicability to most elements in the periodic table.

Demonstrated the method's suitability when thin film deposition is impractical.

Abstract

Ion implantation underpins a vast range of devices and technologies that require precise control over the physical, chemical, electronic, magnetic and optical properties of materials. A variant termed recoil implantation - in which a precursor is deposited onto a substrate as a thin film and implanted via momentum transfer from incident energetic ions - has a number of compelling advantages, particularly when performed using an inert ion nano-beam [Fr\"och et al., Nat Commun 11, 5039 (2020)]. However, a major drawback of this approach is that the implant species are limited to the constituents of solid thin films. Here we overcome this limitation by demonstrating recoil implantation using gas-phase precursors. Specifically, we fabricate nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers in diamond using an Ar ion beam and the nitrogen-containing precursor gases N2, NH3 and NF3. Our work expands the applicability of recoil implantation to most of the periodic table, and to applications in which thin film deposition or removal is impractical.