Light volatiles in diamond: Physical interpretation and genetic significance

Natural diamond is characterised in terms of features in the infra-red and ultra-violet spectra. Additionally electron spin resonance, X-ray diffraction and topography, cathodoluminescence, mechanical and electrical measurements have been used to give more detail to such specification. It had been concluded that the major impurity in diamond was nitrogen and hence most physical phenomena have been interpreted as a manifestation of the mode(s) of occurrence of nitrogen. From neutron activation analysis studies some 58 elements have been identified in diamond, many of course at trace levels. It has been shown that these data reveal a distinctive trace and minor element chemistry for diamond. Recently ion beam analyses have quantified the role of nitrogen in diamond characterisation. Most recently ion beam analysis has revealed that hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen are all major impurities in diamond. Quantitative studies have been made using (19F, α), (α, n) and (3He, p) reactions. High temperature annealing in ultra-high vacuum conditions results in a substantial increase in the hydrogen measured as well as in the shape of the depth profile. Hydrogen is released from defect centres and diffuses rapidly through the diamond. Some of these hydrogen atoms are trapped at defect sites which are concentrated near surface as a result of the ion beam bombardment. A lesser response to the annealing treatment is found for oxygen and the smallest change for nitrogen. These ion beam data lend independent support to our earlier interpretation of the neutron activation data that all diamonds contain defects distributed fairly uniformly and consisting of sub-microscopic inclusions, the elemental composition of which suggests that each is a magma droplet from the upper mantle in which the diamond crystallized. The water-richness of the magma is an essential feature of the diamond genesis conditions. © 1980.