Effect of a Nitrogen Impurity on the Fundamental Raman Band of Diamond Single Crystals

The effect of nitrogen defects in natural and synthetic diamond single crystals on the position and half-width of the fundamental Raman band was investigated. Samples containing the main types of nitrogen lattice defects at impurity contents of 1–1500 ppm were studied. The parameters of the Stokes and anti-Stokes components in Raman spectra of crystals situated in a cell with distilled water to minimize the influence of heating by the exciting laser radiation were analyzed to determine the effect of a nitrogen impurity in the diamond crystal lattice. It was shown that an increase of impurity atoms in the crystals in the studied concentration range resulted in broadening of the Raman band from 1.61 to 2.85 cm–1 and shifting of the maximum to lower frequency from 1332.65 to 1332.3 cm–1. The observed effect was directly proportional to the impurity concentration and depended on the form of the impurity incorporated into the diamond lattice. It was found that the changes in the position and half-width of the fundamental Raman band for diamond were consistent with the magnitude of crystal lattice distortions due to the presence of impurity defects and obeyed the Gruneisen law.