Fano-type Effect in Hydrogen-Terminated Pure Nanodiamond

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 22; no. 7; pp. 2589 - 2594
• Main Authors: Kudryavtsev, Oleg S, Bagramov, Rustem H, Satanin, Arkady M, Shiryaev, Andrey A, Lebedev, Oleg I, Romshin, Alexey M, Pasternak, Dmitrii G, Nikolaev, Alexander V, Filonenko, Vladimir P, Vlasov, Igor I
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 13.04.2022
• Subjects: Chemical Sciences; nanodiamond; Fano interference; IR absorption; Raman scattering; transfer doping
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c04887

Two novel properties, unique for semiconductors, a negative electron affinity and a high p-type surface electrical conductivity, were discovered in diamond at the end of the last century. Both properties appear when the diamond surface is hydrogenated. A natural question arises: is the influence of the surface hydrogen on diamond limited only to the electrical properties? Here, for the first time to our knowledge, we observe a transparency peak at 1328 cm–1 in the infrared absorption of hydrogen-terminated pure (undoped) nanodiamonds. This new optical property is ascribed to Fano-type destructive interference between zone-center optical phonons and free carriers (holes) appearing in the near-surface layer of hydrogenated nanodiamond. This work opens the way to explore the physics of electron–phonon coupling in undoped semiconductors and promises the application of H-terminated nanodiamonds as a new optical material with induced transparency in the infrared optical range.