Conductive-AFM study of emerging graphitic channels implanted in CVD diamond

Carbon has different allotropic forms at ambient conditions with radically different structural and electrical properties (most importantly, diamond and graphite): this peculiarity allows the fabrication of all-carbon devices for various technological applications. In this context, the employment of focused MeV ion beams in diamond is a versatile tool to create different structural forms of carbon by the progressive conversion of the sp 3-bonded diamond lattice to a sp2-bonded amorphous /graphitic phase. The use of variable-thickness masks on the diamond surface allows the tuning of the ion penetration depth in order to realize channels with emerging endpoints, with several applications in radiation detection, bio-sensing and color center emission [1-3]. In the present paper we report about the Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy (C-AFM) characterization of the emerging areas of buried graphitic channels.