Abstract
STUDIES of optical and electrical properties have shown that natural diamond can be broadly categorised into four types, types IA, IB, IIA and IIB (refs 1–3). Type IA is the most common (98% abundance)3 and contains up to 0.34% N (ref.16), which has been argued5 to occur in atom pairs. Type IB diamond contains much less N, of which 1–2% occurs as single substitutional paramagnetic N. Type II diamonds contain even less N. The p-type semiconducting property of type IIB diamond is due to the presence of B (refs 6, 7), the concentration of which has been correlated with the acceptor concentration7. We have determined and report here the impurity contents of 23 diamonds of different types in order to investigate whether elements other than N and B contribute to the physical properties of diamond. Although there are few diamonds of each type and the statistics are therefore poor, two diamonds were found to contain an excess of Ni, while the three Type IIB diamonds possibly contained an excess of Al.
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BIBBY, D., FESQ, H. & SELLSCHOP, J. Trace elements in diamonds of different types. Nature 276, 379–381 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/276379a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/276379a0
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