Isotope composition dependence of the band-gap energy in diamond

Abstract

We present experimental results on the band-gap energies of homoepitaxial diamond films with isotopic compositions ranging from nearly pure carbon-12 (${}^{12}$C) to nearly pure carbon-13 (${}^{13}$C). Diamond crystals were grown by microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition, which controls the isotope composition and minimizes the density of impurities and defects. We find that the isotope substitution of ${}^{12}$C by ${}^{13}$C increases the band-gap energy in diamond by up to 15.4 meV at 79 K. The increase at room temperature is estimated from the temperature dependence of the band-gap renormalization due to electron-phonon interaction and is found to be even larger than that at low temperatures. These results unambiguously demonstrate the possibility of band-gap engineering of diamond via control of the isotopic composition.