We present direct experimental evidence of quantum confinement effects in single isolated nanodiamonds by scanning tunneling spectroscopy. For grains smaller than 4.5 nm, the band gap was found to increase with decreasing nanodiamond size and a well-defined, evenly spaced, 12-peak structure was observed on the conduction band side of the conductance curves. We attribute these peaks to the Coulomb blockade effect, reflecting the 12-fold degeneracy of the first electron-energy level in the confined nanodiamond. The present results shed light on the size dependence of the electronic properties of single nanodiamonds and are of major importance for future nanodiamond-based applications.

• Received 7 March 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.88.035442