News Article
Nano footballs and diamond doping
Researchers at the University of Erlangen in Germany hope to open “a broad vista of possible semiconductor applications for diamond” using a new doping method (Nature, July 22, 2004). Rather than introduce chemical impurities, the scientists evaporate C60 molecules (“Bucky balls”) onto a hydrogen-terminated diamond surface, inducing a subsurface hole accumulation and a significant rise in two-dimensional conductivity.
Researchers at the University of Erlangen in Germany hope to open “a broad vista of possible semiconductor applications for diamond” using a new doping method (Nature, July 22, 2004). Rather than introduce chemical impurities, the scientists evaporate C60 molecules (“Bucky balls”) onto a hydrogen-terminated diamond surface, inducing a subsurface hole accumulation and a significant rise in two-dimensional conductivity.
The researchers write: “Our observations bear a resemblance to the so-called surface conductivity of diamond seen when hydrogenated diamond surfaces are exposed to air, and support and electrochemical model in which the reduction of hydrated protons in an aqueous surface layer gives rise to a hole accumulation layer.”
Previous, impurity-based doping techniques have suffered from high activation energies (more than 0.36eV).