Diamond diversity - from micro- and nanostructuring to multifunctional tools and devices

This thesis deals with the realisation of numerous diamond based devices for various fields of applications, which is achieved by the development of simple, yet powerful techniques to sculpt micro- and nanostructures into diamond. Nanostructuring today is one of the key features of nearly all fields of modern technology, since it opens up unforeseen possibilities with respect to speed, miniaturisation and the enhancement of physical properties due to low-dimensional effects. The first part of the thesis concentrates on the achievement of structures ranging from diamond pores to diamond channels, micro pillars, and diamond nanowires with freely adjustable sizes, spacing, and a variety of geometries on epitaxially grown diamond substrates. Developed methods live from self-organization mechanisms, which employ metal dewetting and nanosphere lithography. Employing catalysed diamond etching using molten nickel particles as well as reactive ion etching, this work presents new, fast, and cost-efficient ways to structure not only flat, but also curved and demandingly shaped diamond substrates, which would otherwise not be reachable using standard lithographic processes. The second part of this thesis is devoted to the realisation and employment of devices for various applications using the developed structuring techniques from the first part, and by doing so, boosting diamond's already extraordinary physical properties even further. The explorations of diamond's emerging fields are set in applications for electron field emission and new cutting-edge developments involving quantum photonics and combined topographical and electrochemical imaging on the nanoscale. In all of these fields, diamond exhibits unrivalled physical properties such as negative electron affinity, single photon emitting ability, extreme robustness, and unsurpassed chemical stability. All these characteristics prove diamond -- one of the most precious materials -- is, once again, extremely valuable for a wide variety of sophisticated tools in modern technology.

Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit werden optische und elektrische Materialeigenschaften von BGaP und BGaAsP mittels hochauflösender Röntgenbeugung, Raman-Spektroskopie und spektroskopischer Ellipsometrie untersucht. Darauf aufbauend werden elektrisch gepumpte Rippenwellenleiterlaser mit geätzten Spiegelfacetten basierend auf dem neuartigen Ga(NAsP)-Materialsystem auf Si-Substrat mittels photolithographischer Prozessierung hergestellt und anschließend charakterisiert.