Fabrication of thin diamond membranes by Ne implantation

Despite color centers in diamond represent a leading tool for quantum information science, an efficient and consistent integration of these diamond-based platform with other devices remains a challenge. Single-crystal, color-centers-enriched, nanoscale-thick diamond membranes could play an important role as layers in heterostructures devices, with applications ranging from nanophotonics to quantum sensing. A common top-down approach for membranes production is known as “smart-cut”: a diamond is implanted with He ions that form a graphitized layer below diamond surface, layer that is then etched to lift-off the resulting thin membrane from the diamond substrate. Due to the high ions flux fluence required, this process is extremely time-consuming. In this work, diamond membranes are produced by Ne implantation of a diamond substrate resulting in ~300 nm thick membranes formation. To find the graphitization threshold, different Ne flux fluences are tested. The implanted diamonds are characterized with SEM and TEM, while the quality of the resulting membrane is assessed by Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Compared to He smart-cut, we showed that the use of a heavier ion like Ne results in a ten-fold decrease in fabrication time without affecting the membrane quality.



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