Diamond nanowire--a challenge from extremes

Crystalline diamond nanowires have been grown in a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process under 900 °C and atmospheric pressure--an extraordinary find in diamond growth. These diamond nanowires are straight, thin and long, and uniform in diameter (60-90 nm) over their entire lengths of tens of microns. Extensive characterizations including electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy were performed to confirm that the diamond nanowire has highly crystalline cubic diamond structure encased inside a graphitic or carbonaceous shell. Such a core-shell structure suggests a potential formation mechanism in the framework of an effectively lowered Gibbs free energy due to nano-capillary and surface charge pressure. The capillary pressure (inversely proportional to the wire radius) can be sufficiently high to allow the diamond phase to be thermodynamically favorable in the inner core while the outer shell takes on the graphitic phase. The properties of diamond can manifest themselves differently in the nanowire morphology. Examples include single-photon emission of nitrogen-vacancy and electron field-emission. Whereas the former has received much attention in the literature, the latter turned out to be just as impressive and is show-cased here for the first time.