Substitutional phosphorus incorporation in nanocrystalline CVD diamond thin films

Nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) thin films were produced by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and doped by the addition of phosphine to the gas mixture. The characterization of the films focused on probing the incorporation and distribution of the phosphorus (P) dopants. Electron microscopy evaluated the overall film morphology and revealed the interior structure of the nanosized grains. The homogeneous films with distinct diamond grains featured a notably low sp2:sp3-ratio as confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. High resolution spectroscopy methods demonstrated a homogeneous P-incorporation, both in-depth and in-plane. The P concentration in the films was determined to be in the order of 1019 cm–3 with a significant fraction integrated at substitutional donor sites. (© 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)