Increased drift carrier lifetime in semiconducting boron carbides deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition from carboranes and benzene

Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor (PECVD) codeposition of benzene and 1,2-dicarbadodecaborane, 1,2-B10C2H12 (orthocarborane) and benzene, 1,7 dicarbadodecaborane, and 1,7-B10C2H12 (metacarborane) results in semiconducting boron carbide composite films with significantly longer drift carrier lifetimes than plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposited semiconducting boron carbide synthesized from orthocarborane or metacarborane alone. Capacitance versus voltage C ( V ) and current versus voltage I ( V ) measurements indicate the hole carrier lifetimes for PECVD benzene/orthocarborane based semiconducting boron carbide composites increase to 2.5 ms from values of ≤35 μs for the PECVD semiconducting boron carbide films fabricated without benzene. For PECVD benzene/metacarborane based semiconducting boron carbide composites, there is an increase in the hole carrier lifetime to roughly 300 ns from values of 50 ns for those films fabricated without benzene.