11B nuclear magnetic resonance in boron-doped diamond

This review summarizes recent results obtained by ¹¹B solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) on boron-doped diamond, grown by the high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) or chemical vapor deposition techniques. Simple single-pulse experiments as well as advanced two-dimensional NMR experiments were applied to the boron sites in diamond. It is shown that magic-angle spinning at magnetic fields above 10 T is suitable for observation of high-resolution ¹¹B spectra of boron-doped diamond. For boron-doped HPHT diamonds, the existence of the excess boron that does not contribute to electrical conductivity was confirmed and its ¹¹B NMR signal was characterized. The point-defect structures (B+H complexes and -B-B-/-B-C-B- clusters), postulated previously for the excess boron, were discarded and graphite-like structures were assigned instead.