Self-interstitial aggregation in diamond

• First-principles methods are used to investigate the self-interstitial and its aggregates in diamond. The experimental assignment of the spin-1 R2 EPR center to the single interstitial has been questioned because of the small fine-structure term observed. We calculate the spin-spin interaction tensor for the three interstitial defects I1〈001〉, I2NN, and I3 and compare with the experimental D tensors. The results give support for the assignments of the single and di-interstitials to microscopic models and allow us to conclusively identify a recently observed EPR center, O3, with I3. This identification, in turn, suggests a low-energy structure for I4 and a generic model for an extended defect called the platelet. We also determine the optical properties of I1〈001〉 as well as its piezospectroscopic or stress tensor and find these to be in agreement with experiment. Several multi-interstitial defects are found to possess different structural forms which may coexist. We propose that a different form of the charged I2 defect gives rise to the 3H optical peak. Several structures of the platelet are considered, and we find that the lowest-energy model is consistent with microscopic and infrared studies.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Matematik -- Beräkningsmatematik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Mathematics -- Computational Mathematics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Scientific Computing

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