Surface damages in diamond by Ar/O{sub 2} plasma and their effect on the electrical and electrochemical characteristics of boron-doped layers

Journal Article · Fri Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3489986· OSTI ID:21476522

Denisenko, A; Pietzka, C; Scharpf, J; Kohn, E ^[1]; Romanyuk, A ^[2]

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1. Institute of Electron Devices and Circuits, University of Ulm, 89069 Ulm (Germany)
2. Institute of Physics, University of Basel, 4056 Basel (Switzerland)

Epitaxial single crystal and boron-doped diamond layers were exposed to reactive ion etching in Ar/O{sub 2} plasma (rf power of 25 W and self-bias of 100 V); and the electrical, structural, and electrochemical characteristics of the exposed surface were investigated. Angle-resolved x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) measurements revealed a nonuniform layer of amorphous carbon at the exposed surface with an average thickness of approximately 4 nm, as confirmed also by atomic force microscopy profiling of selectively etched areas. On highly boron-doped diamond, the plasma-induced damages resulted also in a nonconductive surface layer. This damaged and insulating surface layer remained resistant to graphite-etching chemicals and to rf oxygen plasma but it was removed completely in microwave hydrogen plasma at 700 deg. C. The surface characteristics after the H-plasma process followed by wet chemical oxidation were restored back to the initial state, as confirmed by XPS. Such ''recovery'' treatment had been applied to an all-diamond submicrometer electrode array initially patterned by an Ar/O{sub 2} plasma etching. The electrochemical characteristics of this electrode array were improved by more than two orders of magnitude, approaching theoretical limit for the given geometrical configuration.

• OSTI ID: 21476522
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 108, Issue 7; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3489986; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
AMORPHOUS STATE
ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY
BORON
DIAMONDS
DOPED MATERIALS
EPITAXY
ETCHING
GRAPHITE
HYDROGEN
LAYERS
MICROWAVE RADIATION
MONOCRYSTALS
OXIDATION
OXYGEN
PHOTOEMISSION
PLASMA
SPUTTERING
SURFACES
X-RAY PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY
CARBON
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CRYSTAL GROWTH METHODS
CRYSTALS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY
ELEMENTS
EMISSION
MATERIALS
MICROSCOPY
MINERALS
NONMETALS
PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY
RADIATIONS
SECONDARY EMISSION
SEMIMETALS
SPECTROSCOPY
SURFACE FINISHING