title: Effect of proton irradiation on photoluminescent properties of PDMS-nanodiamond composites.
abstract: Pure poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) films, PDMS-nanodiamond (ND) and pure nanodiamond powder were irradiated with 2 MeV protons under a variety of fluence and current conditions. Upon proton irradiation, these samples acquire a fluence-dependent photoluminescence (PL). The emission and excitation spectra, photostability and emission lifetime of the induced photoluminescence of PDMS and PDMS-ND samples are reported. Pure PDMS exhibits a noticeable stable blue PL, while the PDMS-ND composites exhibit a pronounced stable green PL under 425 nm excitation. The PL of PDMS-ND composites is much more prominent than that of pure PDMS or pure ND powder even when irradiated at higher doses. The origin of the significantly enhanced PL intensity for the proton-irradiated PDMS-ND composite is explained by the combination of enhanced intrinsic PL within ND particles due to ion-implantation-generated defects and by PL originating from structural transformations produced by protons at the nanodiamond/matrix interface.
authors.affiliation: International Technology Center, 8100-120 Brownleigh Drive, Raleigh, NC 27617, USA. Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Unska 3, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Vesna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Borjanovic
authors.forename: William G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Lawrence
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hens
authors.forename: Milko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jaksic
authors.forename: Ivana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zamboni
authors.forename: Clark
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Edson
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Vlasov
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Shenderova
authors.forename: Gary E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: McGuire