Chemical vapour deposition diamondstudied by optical and electron spin resonance techniques

Abstract

This work discusses the current situation in the study of bulkdefects in diamond, grown by chemical vapour deposition (CVD),using optical absorption, luminescence, and electron spinresonance techniques. CVD diamond appears distinct from othertypes of diamond in that it exhibits significant concentrationsof bulk defects involving hydrogen, silicon, and possibly tungsten impurities. Importantly, as regards doping, p-typeconductivity up to the degeneracy level can be achieved byboron incorporation, while n-type conductivity can be realizedby phosphorus doping. A generally observed trend is crossfertilization between the studies of various types of diamond:the knowledge of the properties of intrinsic and irradiation-induced defects, obtained from extensive studies ofnatural and high-pressure synthetic diamond crystals, helps inunderstanding the presence of certain radiation-damage-relatedcentres in as-grown CVD films. In return, some achievementsfrom the study of defect centres in CVD diamond may provideuseful information for modelling of defects in crystalline diamond and other semiconducting materials.