Fabrication and Characterization of N-Type Zinc Oxide/P-Type Boron Doped Diamond Heterojunction

Abstract

Diamond and ZnO are very promising wide-bandgap materials for electronic, photovoltaic and sensor applications because of their excellent electrical, optical, physical and electrochemical properties and biocompatibility. In this contribution we show that the combination of these two materials opens up the potential for fabrication of bipolar heterojunctions. Semiconducting boron doped diamond (BDD) thin films were grown on Si and UV grade silica glass substrates by HFCVD method with various boron concentration in the gas mixture. Doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al, ZnO:Ge) thin layers were deposited by diode sputtering and pulsed lased deposition as the second semiconducting layer on the diamond films. The amount of dopants within the films was varied to obtain optimal semiconducting properties to form a bipolar p-n junction. Finally, different ZnO/BDD heterostructures were prepared and analyzed. Raman spectroscopy, SEM, Hall constant and I-V measurements were used to investigate the quality, structural and electrical properties of deposited heterostructures, respectively. I-V measurements of ZnO/BDD diodes show a rectifying ratio of 55 at ±4 V. We found that only very low dopant concentrations for both semiconducting materials enabled us to fabricate a functional p-n junction. Obtained results are promising for fabrication of optically transparent ZnO/BDD bipolar heterojunction.K e y w o r d s: boron doped diamond, zinc oxide, Raman spectroscopy, bipolar heterostructure, wide-bandgap

Determination of temperature dependent parameters of zero-phonon line in photo-luminescence spectrum of silicon-vacancy centre in CVD diamond thin films

“…The dependence of SiV photoluminescence activity on the deposition parameters has been systematically investigated [13][14][15][16]. It has been found that the substrate material quality has no effect on SiV [4] and PL is sensitive to the gas composition [14] and substrate temperature [15]. Optimal gas composition and substrate temperature resulting in maximal PL activity were reported in [16].…”

“…Diamond shows a unique combination of physical and chemical properties such as high hardness, thermal conductivity, chemical stability, wide band gap (∼ 5.5 eV) [1,2] and biocompatibility, which make it advantageous for optoelectronics [3,4] and biotechnology [5]. These applications are determined not only by the intrinsic properties of diamond but also by crystallographic defects and impurities.…”

Comparison of Al and Cu masks used for patterning boron-doped diamonds in oxygen plasma

“…Intrinsic as well as boron-doped diamonds (BBDs) have many remarkable properties for application in microelectrochemical systems such as tribotester [1], various types of resonators [2][3][4][5][6], cantilevers [7], tip probes [8] and a variety of other micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) [9]. The highest hardness, tensile strength, electrical properties [10,11], possibility of long-term surface termination [12,13], large electrochemical window, low background current, mechanical and chemical stability and corrosion resistance designates diamonds a unique material in microfluidics [14][15][16].…”