Shallow donors with high n-type electrical conductivity in homoepitaxial deuterated boron-doped diamond layers.
Diamond is a unique semiconductor for the fabrication of electronic and opto-electronic devices because of its exceptional physical and chemical properties. However, a serious obstacle to the realization of diamond-based devices is the lack of n-type diamond with satisfactory electrical properties. Here we show that high-conductivity n-type diamond can be achieved by deuteration of particularly selected homo-epitaxially grown (100) boron-doped diamond layers. Deuterium diffusion through the entire boron-doped layer leads to the passivation of the boron acceptors and to the conversion from highly p-type to n-type conductivity due to the formation of shallow donors with ionization energy of 0.23 eV. Electrical conductivities as high as 2omega(-1) x cm(-1) with electron mobilities of the order of a few hundred cm2 x V(-1) x s(-1) are measured at 300 K for samples with electron concentrations of several 10(16) x cm(-3). The formation and break-up of deuterium-related complexes, due to some excess deuterium in the deuterated layer, seem to be responsible for the reversible p- to n-type conversion. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time such an effect has been observed in an elemental semiconductor.
Teukam
Zéphirin
Z
Laboratoire de Physique des Solides et de Cristallogénèse, UMR CNRS 8635, 1 place A.Briand, 92195 Meudon Cedex, France.
Chevallier
Jacques
J
Saguy
Cécile
C
Kalish
Rafi
R
Ballutaud
Dominique
D
Barbé
Michel
M
Jomard
François
F
Tromson-Carli
Annie
A
Cytermann
Catherine
C
Butler
James E
JE
Bernard
Mathieu
M
Baron
Céline
C
Deneuville
Alain
A
D001895:Boron; D003903:Deuterium; D018130:Diamond; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D008420:Manufactured Materials; D018629:Spectrometry, Mass, Secondary Ion; D013055:Spectrophotometry, Infrared
D018130:Diamond; D003903:Deuterium; D001895:Boron