Studying hydrogen impurities in synthetic diamond films grown by chemical vapour deposition (M/F)

Job Description

Thesis Subject

Diamond is renowned for its outstanding thermal conductivity, high chemical inertness, hardness and optical transparency ranking it as one of the most strategic functional materials for industry, with applications encompassing a wide range of areas, including power electronics, particle detection, electrochemistry or quantum technologies. The intentional or unintentional introduction of light impurities in synthetic or natural diamonds including N, H or Si as well as vacancies (V) can strongly influence the optical or physical properties of this material. In particular, specific defects may generate active colour centres with bright photon emission or manipulable spin, a great resource for quantum sensing.
Synthetic diamond growth by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) is now a mature and well-established technique. It involves the use of H2-rich plasma at low pressure, leading to H being one of the most common unwanted contaminants. While attention has been mostly focused on nitrogen due to its impact on diamond's colour, the presence of H and H-related defects has been largely overlooked and is usually mostly unknown, due to the difficulty in measuring this light element. Like with other semiconductors though, H affects optical and electrical properties of the material significantly. It tends to interact and associate with existing impurities (N, NV etc.) or electrical dopants (like P or B) thereby passivating them through the formation of stable complexes. Understanding and solving the issue of hydrogen contamination in functional diamond films is a great challenge and is at the core of this project.

Your Work Environment

This project is supported by an ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche) grant (HyFunDia project) obtained in 2026 to unlock the potential of functional diamonds through the control of hydrogen during and after growth of synthetic diamond films. Based on our experience in CVD synthesis, we will grow diamond layers under different conditions and assess their hydrogen content through advanced chemical and spectroscopic analysis techniques such as µ-FTIR, ERDA, SIMS, combustion, EPR etc. Through several post-treatments of implantation or annealing, we plan to study how hydrogen diffuses and passivates colour centres in diamond, in particular the well-known NV centre, an important defect for quantum applications. This particular colour centre will also be used to probe the presence of the nuclear spin of nearby hydrogen.
HyFunDia is a very interdisciplinary project that gathers material scientists (IRCP, LSPM) that are world specialists in diamond synthesis by CVD and diamond quantum applications together with geochemists and mineralogists (IMPMC, IPGP, CEA-LEEL, CRPG), that have a long expertise in hydrogen quantification for both synthetic and natural diamonds.

Compensation and benefits

Compensation

2300 € gross monthly

Annual leave and RTT

44 jours

Remote Working practice and compensation

Pratique et indemnisation du TT

Transport

Prise en charge à 75% du coût et forfait mobilité durable jusqu’à 300€

About the offer

About the CNRS

The CNRS is a major player in fundamental research on a global scale. The CNRS is the only French organization active in all scientific fields. Its unique position as a multi-specialist allows it to bring together different disciplines to address the most important challenges of the contemporary world, in connection with the actors of change.

CNRS

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