Back to Search
Start Over
Shallow donors with high n-type electrical conductivity in homoepitaxial deuterated boron-doped diamond layers.
- Source :
-
Nature materials [Nat Mater] 2003 Jul; Vol. 2 (7), pp. 482-6. - Publication Year :
- 2003
-
Abstract
- 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.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1476-1122
- Volume :
- 2
- Issue :
- 7
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Nature materials
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 12876564
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat929