Electronic properties of the diamond films with nitrogen impurities: An x-ray absorption and photoemission spectroscopy study

X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) measurements have been performed for nitrogen (N) containing diamond films with three different N concentrations at the C K-edge using the sample drain current mode. The C K-edge XANES spectra of these diamond films resemble that of the pure diamond regardless of the N concentration, which suggests that the overall bonding configuration of the C atom is unaltered. N impurities are found to reduce the intensities of both the sp(2)- and sp(3)-bond derived resonance features in the XANES spectra. The valence-band photoelectron spectra indicate that N atoms cause the broadening of the valence band sigma- and pi -bond features and the enhancement and reduction of the sigma- and pi -bond features, respectively. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)04652-0].