Boron doping of diamond thin films

Abstract

The electrical conductivity of diamond thin films produced by the hot-filament technique is found to increase when diborane is incorporated in the precursor gas mixture. The combination of well-defined bulk conductivity measurements with quantitative secondary-ion mass spectrometry and Raman spectroscopy shows that the conductivity increase is associated with atomic boron doping and rules out any significant role for a graphitic-type component.

Effect of N and B doping on the growth of CVD diamond(100):H(2×1)surfaces

“…This is due to the large number of experimental parameters contributing to the problem and an uncertainty about the growth species. Progress has been made on the latter by the work of D'Evelyn et al, 1 who, using isotope labeling techniques, claim to have unequivocally identified the principal growth species to be CH 3 . With this in mind, Harris and Goodwin 2 have proposed a complex mechanism for diamond growth, whose initial steps lead to the deposition of a CH 2 group at a bridge site above a surface reconstruction bond.…”

“…In the case of B, various workers have found that B improves the crystalline quality of ͑100͒ CVD surfaces and enhances the p-type conductivity of the films. [3][4][5] Interest in the role of N in CVD diamond has been heightened by experimental observations that N preferentially catalyses growth in the ͑100͒ direction. [6][7][8] To the authors' knowledge, no serious attempts have been made to explain these phenomena theoretically.…”

Conductive diamond electrodes for water purification

“…The conductivity of diamond can be improved significantly by doping with boron. Boron doping is usually achieved by adding B 2 H 6 , 5,6 or B(OCH 3 ) 3 7,8 to the gas stream, or placing boron powder near the edges of the substrate prior to insertion into the CVD chamber 9 . Since the late 70's and early 80's, CVD technique was established as an economical, relatively fast and easy process for producing diamond.…”

Diamond-based electrodes for organic photovoltaic devices

“…Once successfully doped, diamond, which is generally recognized as an insulating material, becomes a wide-band gap semiconductor material with excellent potential due to the unique combination of its physical and electronic properties. The boron atom seems to be the only efficient dopant atom in diamond, which can be incorporated with high reproducibility and at a concentration high enough to be useful for electronic devices [15][16][17][18][19]. The physical properties of lightly-doped semiconductors are described in terms of band structures and impurity levels -the phenomenon of the formation of an impurity band was observed even at room temperature [17,18].…”

“…With respect to photovoltaic devices, light-harvesting materials can be directly manufactured by the PECVD process [7,8]. Diamond is recognized to be a remarkable material due to its particularly attractive properties combining chemical resistance, optical transparency, thermal conductivity [9][10][11][12][13], and electrochemical properties [14][15][16][17][18]. Once successfully doped, diamond, which is generally recognized as an insulating material, becomes a wide-band gap semiconductor material with excellent potential due to the unique combination of its physical and electronic properties.…”