Impedance spectroscopy analysis of n-type (nitrogen-doped) ultrananocrystalline diamond/p-type Si heterojunction diodes

Abstract

Heterojunction diodes are constructed by growing n-type (nitrogen-doped) ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD)/hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) composite films onto p-type Si substrates in nitrogen and hydrogen mixed-gases by coaxial arc plasma deposition. The fabricated heterojunctions are analyzed regarding their film morphology and electrical properties. The complex structure of UNCD/a-C:H films, which consists of nano-sized-sp3 diamond grains and sp2-grain boundaries (GBs), makes it difficult to separate their contribution to electrical conductivity of the films using conventional characterization methods. In this paper we characterize the n-type UNCD/p-type Si heterojunction diode by employing impedance spectroscopy method, which can isolate the differing components that contribute to the overall conductivity of the film. The impedance spectroscopy is measured in the frequency range of 100 Hz to 2 MHz, with AC small signal superimpose on DC bias voltage in the range of 0–1 V. The influence of the bias on UNCD grains and GBs contribution to resistance and capacitance of UNCD/a-C:H film and n-UNCD/p-Si heterojunction is investigated by equivalent circuit model using fitting of the impedance data. The results revealed that the electrical conductivity is mainly controlled by the GBs rather than the UNCD grains. Furthermore, the extracted value of dielectric constant of N-doped UNCD/a-C:H film is found to be comparable with that of microcrystalline diamond, which indicates the capacitance contribution in the device is mainly originated from the UNCD grains. This study demonstrates capability of impedance spectroscopy to provide an obvious separated contribution of sp3 and sp2 bonded carbons to the electrical conductivity in their coexistence materials.