Electronic properties of the diamond films with nitrogen impurities: An x-ray absorption and photoemission spectroscopy study

X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) measurements have been perform ed for nitrogen (N) containing diamond films with three different N concent rations at the C K-edge using the sample drain current mode. The C K-edge X ANES spectra of these diamond films resemble that of the pure diamond regar dless of the N concentration, which suggests that the overall bonding confi guration of the C atom is unaltered. N impurities are found to reduce the i ntensities of both the sp(2)- and sp(3)-bond derived resonance features in the XANES spectra. The valence-band photoelectron spectra indicate that N a toms cause the broadening of the valence band sigma- and pi -bond features and the enhancement and reduction of the sigma- and pi -bond features, resp ectively. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)04652-0].