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Specialty Chemistry Forums => Materials and Nanochemistry forum => Topic started by: pnacze199204 on July 12, 2018, 05:54:09 PM

Title: How many atoms thick is a diamond sheet?
Post by: pnacze199204 on July 12, 2018, 05:54:09 PM

Is there a way to calculate how many atoms thick a 1 nm diamond layer would be? Someone could help me? Thank you!

P.S. I have nothing to do with Chemistry or Physics, and this is not a homework. I'm just curious and I tried to find the information on my own, but didn't manage.
Title: Re: How many atoms thick is a diamond sheet?
Post by: Babcock_Hall on July 12, 2018, 06:25:44 PM
What do you know about bond lengths?
Title: Re: How many atoms thick is a diamond sheet?
Post by: Enthalpy on July 13, 2018, 07:24:16 AM
For an approximate solution, divide the thickness by the interatomic distance in diamond, which you first multiply by some cosine, for instance 45°. The answer is: not many. But MOS transistors have gate insulators about that thin, with the now prototyped channel length of 7nm. And since one atomic radius or distance is what an electron reaches easily by tunnel effect, you can guess that tunnelling is a difficult limit to gate insulator thinness.

A more accurate solution needs to know the orientation of the diamond layer, because the atomic planes have varied stacking distances according to the orientation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_cubic