Improving the Optical Properties of Potassium Chloride Crystals by Doping Diamond Nanoparticles

Abstract In this work, the growth and characterization of potassium chloride crystals containing diamond nanoparticles has been performed. The crystals were grown by the Czochralski method and the doped samples contained 0.5, 1 and 1.5% impurities of diamond nanoparticles. The crystals were characterized by X ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), etching and thermoluminesence (TL). The XRD analysis shows the most of the nanodiamonds are still in single crystal form. FTIR demonstrates the composed crystals are transparent in IR range (transmission ~ 87%). The etching analysis reveals a crystal dislocation in order of 105 for the samples. Examination of thermoluminescence properties of crystals by gamma irradiation with doses of 10, 80 and 300 Gy showed that the sample with 0.5% doped ND had the best glow curve, but for the dose of 1000 Gy, the sample with 1% doped had the best curve.