Thermally Stable, High Performance Transfer Doping of Diamond using Transition Metal Oxides

We report on optimisation of the environmental stability and high temperature operation of surface transfer doping in hydrogen-terminated diamond using MoO(3) and V(2)O(5) surface acceptor layers. In-situ annealing of the hydrogenated diamond surface at 400 °C was found to be crucial to enhance long-term doping stability. High temperature sheet resistance measurements up to 300 °C were performed to examine doping thermal stability. Exposure of MoO(3) and V(2)O(5) transfer-doped hydrogen-terminated diamond samples up to a temperature of 300 °C in ambient air showed significant and irreversible loss in surface conductivity. Thermal stability was found to improve dramatically however when similar thermal treatment was performed in vacuum or in ambient air when the oxide layers were encapsulated with a protective layer of hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ). Inspection of the films by X-ray diffraction revealed greater crystallisation of the MoO(3) layers following thermal treatment in ambient air compared to the V(2)O(5) films which appeared to remain amorphous. These results suggest that proper encapsulation and passivation of these oxide materials as surface acceptor layers on hydrogen-terminated diamond is essential to maximise their environmental and thermal stability.