Compressibility of boron-doped diamond

Abstract

The isothermal bulk modulus K _T strongly depends on chemical bonds and the structure of solids. It can be calculated though experimentally measurable parameters (P, V and T) and, thus, can be used as a quantitative characteristic establishing (describing) relations between the structure and atomic forces from one side, and the physical properties of solids, from another side. Here, we report the results of high pressure–high temperature synthesis of boron-doped diamond and the results of experimental determination of the bulk modulus of this extremely incompressible material. Theoretical calculations suggested very little (within computational uncertainty) effect of the doping on the compressibility of diamond for impurity concentrations up to 3 at.%. Our calculations also confirmed that B-atoms prefer to substitute C-atoms in a diamond structure.

Keywords:

• Compressibility
• Boron-doped diamond
• X-ray diffraction

Acknowledgements

N. Dubrovinskaia and L. Dubrovinsky thank Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for financial support.