Hu Meihua

Growth and annealing study of hydrogen-doped single diamond crystals under high pressure and high temperature

A series of diamond crystals doped with hydrogen is successfully synthesized using LiH as the hydrogen source in a catalyst-carbon system at a pressure of 6.0 GPa and temperature ranging from 1255 °C to 1350 °C. It is shown that the high temperature plays a key role in the incorporation of hydrogen atoms during diamond crystallization. Fourier transform infrared micro-spectroscopy reveals that most of the hydrogen atoms in the synthesized diamond are incorporated into the crystal structure as sp3 -CH2-symmetric (2850 cm−1) and sp3 CH2-antisymmetric vibrations (2920 cm−1). The intensities of these peaks increase gradually with an increase in the content of the hydrogen source in the catalyst. The incorporation of hydrogen impurity leads to a significant shift towards higher frequencies of the Raman peak from 1332.06 cm−1 to 1333.05 cm−1 and gives rise to some compressive stress in the diamond crystal lattice. Furthermore, hydrogen to carbon bonds are evident in the annealed diamond, indicating that the bonds that remain throughout the annealing process and the vibration frequencies centred at 2850 and 2920 cm−1 have no observable shift. Therefore, we suggest that the sp3 C-H bond is rather stable in diamond crystals.

FEM simulations and experimental studies of the temperature field in a large diamond crystal growth cell

We investigate the temperature field variation in the growth region of a diamond crystal in a sealed cell during the whole process of crystal growth by using the temperature gradient method (TGM) at high pressure and high temperature (HPHT). We employ both the finite element method (FEM) and in situ experiments. Simulation results show that the temperature in the center area of the growth cell continues to decrease during the process of large diamond crystal growth. These results are in good agreement with our experimental data, which demonstrates that the finite element model can successfully predict the temperature field variations in the growth cell. The FEM simulation will be useful to grow larger high-quality diamond crystal by using the TGM. Furthermore, this method will be helpful in designing better cells and improving the growth process of gem-quality diamond crystal.

Effects of FeNi-phosphorus-carbon system on crystal growth of diamond under high pressure and high temperature conditions

This paper reports the crystal growth of diamond from the FeNi?Carbon system with additive phosphorus at high pressures and high temperatures of 5.4?5.8?GPa and 1280?1360??C. Attributed to the presence of additive phosphorus, the pressure and temperature condition, morphology, and color of diamond crystals change obviously. The pressure and temperature condition of diamond growth increases evidently with the increase of additive phosphorus content and results in the moving up of the V-shape region. The surfaces of the diamonds also become coarse as the additive phosphorus added in the growth system. Raman spectra indicate that diamonds grown from the FeNi-phosphorus-carbon system have more crystal defects and impurities. This work provides a new way to enrich the doping of diamond and improve the experimental exploration for future material applications.

Effects of a carbon convection field on large diamond growth under high-pressure high-temperature conditions

Large diamond crystals were successfully synthesized by a FeNi—C system using the temperature gradient method under high-pressure high-temperature conditions. The assembly of the growth cell was improved and the growth process of diamond was investigated. Effects of the symmetry of the carbon convection field around the growing diamond crystal were investigated systematically by adjusting the position of the seed crystal in the melted catalyst/solvent. The results indicate that the morphologies and metal inclusion distributions of the synthetic diamond crystals vary obviously in both symmetric and non-symmetric carbon convection fields with temperature. Moreover, the finite element method was applied to analyze the carbon convection mode of the melted catalyst/solvent around the diamond crystal. This work is helpful for understanding the growth mechanism of diamond.

Synthesis and characterization of a single diamond crystal with a high nitrogen concentration

In this paper, we explore diamond synthesis with a series of experiments using an Fe—Ni catalyst and a P3N5 additive in the temperature range of 1250–1550 °C and the pressure range of 5.0–6.3 GPa. We also investigate the influence of nitrogen on diamond crystallization. Our results show that the synthesis conditions (temperature and pressure) increase with the amount of P3N5 additive increasing. The nitrogen impurity can significantly influence the diamond morphology. The diamonds stably grow into strip and lamellar shapes in the nitrogen-rich environment. The Fourier-transform infrared spectrum shows that the nitrogen concentration increases rapidly with the content of P3N5 additive increasing. By spectrum analysis, we find that with the increase of the nitrogen concentration, the Ib-type nitrogen atoms can aggregate in the A-centre form. The highest A-centre nitrogen concentration is approximately 840 ppm.