Cobalt impurities in synthetic diamond

High-quality single crystals of diamond were grown by the temperature-gradient method using cobalt-containing metals as the solvent-catalyst. Cobalt and nickel impurities in the crystals were measured by X-ray fluorescence using synchrotron radiation. Their distributions were imaged by a mapping technique. Their concentrations were also measured at a number of points of the crystals. X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopic measurements were carried out to investigate the bonding nature of the impurities. It was confirmed that the cobalt impurity distributes preferentially in the {111} sectors like nickel. We found that the concentration of cobalt is in proportional correlation with that of nickel in crystals grown from alloys containing both cobalt and nickel, and that cobalt is more difficult to incorporate than nickel. The XANES measurements revealed that the cobalt impurity occupies tetrahedral sites like nickel. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.