Structural peculiarities, mineral inclusions, and point defects in yakutites—A variety of impact‐related diamond

Abstract An unusual variety of impact‐related diamond from the Popigai impact structure—yakutites—is characterized by complementary methods including optical microscopy, X‐ray diffraction, radiography and tomography, infrared, Raman, and luminescence spectroscopy providing structural information at widely different scales. It is shown that relatively large graphite aggregates may be transformed to diamond with preservation of many morphological features. Spectroscopic and X‐ray diffraction data indicate that the yakutite matrix represents bulk nanocrystalline diamond. For the first time, features of two‐phonon IR absorption spectra of bulk nanocrystalline diamond are interpreted in the framework of phonon dispersion curves. Luminescence spectra of yakutite are dominated by dislocation‐related defects. Optical microscopy supported by X‐ray diffraction reveals the presence of single crystal diamonds with sizes of up to several tens of microns embedded into nanodiamond matrix. The presence of single crystal grains in impact diamond may be explained by chemical vapor deposition–like growth in a transient cavity and/or a seconds‐long compression stage of the impact process due to slow pressure release in a volatile‐rich target. For the first time, protogenetic mineral inclusions in yakutites represented by mixed monoclinic and tetragonal ZrO 2 are observed. This implies the presence of baddeleyite in target rocks responsible for yakutite formation.