Silicon-vacancy color centers in diamond microcrystals from ethanol and tetramethoxysilane

Silicon-vacancy color centers in diamond microcrystals were produced by means of a novel proceeding: chemical vapor deposition using a solution of tetramethoxysilane in ethanol as precursor. The use of these precursors allows achieving a precise control over doping without the difficulties inherent in the more commonly used solid silicon or silane. We managed to obtain good-quality crystals and found the TMOS/ethanol ratio to optimize the photoluminescence (PL) intensity. The samples were characterized by Raman and PL spectroscopies. PL behavior intensity with different doping was found similar to that of single crystal doped with silane. The maximum PL intensity was achieved by a 4 × 10−2 molar fraction of tetramethoxysilane in ethanol.