Synthetic diamond thin films for electronics: functionalization, electronic transport and
possible applications
E. Verveniotis
1
, J. Čermák
2
, Y. Okawa
1
, Y. Koide
3
, A. Kromka
2
, M. Ledinsky
2
, C. Joachim
1,4
and B. Rezek
2
1
International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (WPI-MANA), National Institute for
Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan
2
Institute of Physics, ASCR, Cukrovarnicka, 10, Prague, 16253, Czech Republic
3
National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044,
Japan
4
Centre d’Elaboration de Matériaux et d’Études Structurales (CEMES), Centre National de
la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Contact email:
Diamond is the hardest known natural material. It is transparent, has outstanding
thermal conductivity (900–2.320 Wm
-1
K
-1
), exhibits a bandgap of 5.5 eV, and can be doped
p- or n- type by Boron or Phosphorous, respectively. Those are only few of the properties that
make it an excellent candidate for future electronics, at the dawn of Si era. Understanding
electronic transport and charge-related effects in diamond are therefore crucial for designing
and optimizing diamond-based devices. One way to study these effects in the micro- or nano-
scale is to apply intentional charging of the material with subsequent characterization by
Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) [1-3].
In this work, we deposit nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) thin films in sub-100 nm-
and μm-thickness, and characterize them at nanoscale, after functionalization by local and
intentional charging of the material. By correlating KPFM, conductive atomic force
microscopy, micro-Raman spectroscopy,
I/V
characteristics, and scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) data, we show that sp
2
phase dominates over diamond grains in local
transport and electrostatic charging of NCD, regardless of film thickness. However, several
experiments conducted under the same conditions revealed a variation of up to 12x in
charged potential amplitude (0.1-1.2 V) [4]. This is ascribed to both tip-surface junction
changes when scanning in atomic force microscope, and complex sub-surface morphology of
NCD as evidenced by SEM cross-sections. Nevertheless, we show that it is possible to use
highly charged NCD areas for the self-assembly of nanoparticles.
By charging monocrystalline diamond (MCD) we solve the reproducibility issues of
NCD, as MCD always exhibits several V of charged amplitude, allowing for the self-
assembly to occur consistently. This is attributed to the different charging mechanisms
(surface only in MCD vs, in the bulk in NCD) which are clarified by detailed models for both
systems.
References
[1] E. Verveniotis et al.
Phys. Status Solidi A
2010, 207, 2040-2044
[2] E. Verveniotis, et al.
Diam. Relat. Mater
2012, 24, 39-43,
[3] E. Verveniotis et al.
Langmuir
2013, 29, 7111–7117
[4] E. Verveniotis et al.
Nanoscale Res. Lett.
2011, 6, 144.
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