Fluorescent nanodiamonds from molecular diamond seed

We present a new materials growth technique for the generation of optically active nanodiamonds. Our approach utilizes so-called "diamondoid" molecular diamonds, fewtetrahedrally bonded carbon atoms, as a seed for chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth. In particular, we show that both nanoscopic (~100 nm) and microscopic (~1 μm) diamond crystals can be grown with high quality diamond from self-assembled monolayers of tetramantane (C₂₂H₂₈) and pentamantane (C₂₆H₃₂). The isolated nanodiamonds used here are doped with silicon during crystal growth, yielding silicon vacancy color centers. These materials will be useful for diverse areas such as quantum optics, cavity QED and biological sensing and imaging.