Diamond-EuF3 nanocomposites with bright orange photoluminescence

We report the manufacturing of a novel diamond – rare-earth (RE) composite material with EuF3 nanoparticles (NP) embedded in the synthesized microcrystalline diamond films that show strong photoluminescence in the orange part of the visible spectrum. Synthesis of the aforementioned composite includes placement of EuF3 NP on the diamond substrate and subsequent coating of them with an additional polycrystalline diamond layer grown by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The produced composite films exhibit high intensity localized photoluminescence (PL) at 612nm with the decay time of 0.34ms, which is generated by the EuF3 particles buried within a very stable transparent diamond matrix. The proposed synthetic approach is quite versatile, as it allows preparation of the luminescent diamond - RE particles nanocomposites of different sizes and natures which perform well over a broad range of the visible spectrum.