N-type semiconducting diamond, and method of making the same

Abstract

Abstract N-type semiconducting diamond is disclosed, which is intrinsically, i.e., at the time of diamond formation, doped with n-type dopant atoms. Such diamond is advantageously formed by chemical vapor deposition from a source gas mixture comprising a carbon source compound for the diamond, and a volatile precursor compound for the n-type impurity species, so that the n-type impurity atoms are doped in the diamond film in situ during its formation. By such in situ formation technique, shallow n-type impurity atoms, e.g., lithium, arsenic, phosphorous, scandium, antimony, bismuth, and the like, may be incorporated into the crystal lattice in a uniform manner, and without the occurrence of gross lattice asperities and other lattice damage artifacts which result from ion implanation techniques. A corresponding chemical vapor deposition method of forming the n-type semiconducting diamond is disclosed. The n-type semiconducting diamond of the invention may be usefully employed in the formation of diamond-based transistor devices comprising pn diamond junctions, and in other microelectronic device applications.

Inventors

• 👤 Charles P. Beetz, Jr.
• 👤 Douglas C. Gordon
• 👤 Duncan W. Brown

Bibliographic Details