Moreover, indirect band gap semiconductors do not interact efficiently with light via electronic transitions, so diamond cannot be used as a light source or a solar cell.
The electronic properties of semiconductors can be altered by adding impurity atoms (doping), but this is very difficult in diamond because of the rigidity of its carbon lattice.An alternative to doping is strain engineering, which involves changing the atomic spacing in a lattice.
Lu’s group is now looking at several possible applications for stretched diamond including making lasers of different colours.“Intrinsically, diamond has a wide band gap so would produce UV light,†he says.
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