Surface States of (100) O-Terminated Diamond: Towards Other 1 × 1:O Reconstruction Models

• Main Authors: Gonzalo Alba, M. Pilar Villar, Rodrigo Alcántara, Javier Navas, Daniel Araujo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-06-01
• Series: Nanomaterials
• Subjects: O-terminated diamond; H-terminated diamond; diamond surface reconstruction; angleresolved XPS
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/10/6/1193

Diamond surface properties show a strong dependence on its chemical termination. Hydrogen-terminated and oxygen-terminated diamonds are the most studied terminations with many applications in the electronic and bioelectronic device field. One of the main techniques for the characterization of diamond surface terminations is X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In this sense, the use of angleresolved XPS (ARXPS) experiments allows obtaining depth-dependent information used here to evidence (100)Oterminated diamond surface atomic configuration when fabricated by acid treatment. The results were used to compare the chemistry changes occurring during the oxidation process using a sublayer XPS intensity model. The formation of nondiamond carbon phases at the subsurface and higher oxygen contents were shown to result from the oxygenation treatment. A new (100) 1 × 1:O surface reconstruction model is proposed to explain the XPS quantification results of Oterminated diamond.