Thermal diffusion boron doping of single-crystal natural diamond
Abstract
With the best overall electronic and thermal properties, single crystal diamond (SCD) is the extreme wide bandgap material that is expected to revolutionize power electronics and radio-frequency electronics in the future. However, turning SCD into useful semiconductors requires overcoming doping challenges, as conventional substitutional doping techniques, such as thermal diffusion and ion implantation, are not easily applicable to SCD. Here we report a simple and easily accessible doping strategy demonstrating that electrically activated, substitutional doping in SCD without inducing graphitization transition or lattice damage can be readily realized with thermal diffusion at relatively low temperatures by using heavily doped Si nanomembranes as a unique dopant carrying medium. Atomistic simulations elucidate a vacancy exchange boron doping mechanism that occurs at the bonded interface between Si and diamond. We further demonstrate selectively doped high voltage diodes and half-wave rectifier circuits using such doped SCD. Our new doping strategy has established a reachable path toward using SCDs for future high voltage power conversion systems and for other novel diamond based electronic devices. The novel doping mechanism may find its critical use in other wide bandgap semiconductors.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 24, 2016
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4949327
Entities
People
- Dane Morgan
- Giri Venkataramanan
- Henry Wu
- Hongyi Mi
- James P. Blanchard
- Jung-Hun Seo
- Shaoqin Gong
- Solomon Mikael
- Weidong Zhou
- Zhenqiang Ma
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- National Science Foundation
- University of Texas at Arlington
- University of Wisconsin–Madison