Jose Carlos Piñero

Critical boron-doping levels for generation of dislocations in synthetic diamond

Defects induced by boron doping in diamond layers were studied by transmission electron microscopy. The existence of a critical boron doping level above which defects are generated is reported. This level is found to be dependent on the CH4/H2 molar ratios and on growth directions. The critical boron concentration lied in the 6.5–17.0 × 1020at/cm3 range in the ⟨111⟩ direction and at 3.2 × 1021 at/cm3 for the ⟨001⟩ one. Strain related effects induced by the doping are shown not to be responsible. From the location of dislocations and their Burger vectors, a model is proposed, together with their generation mechanism.

Boron concentration profiling by high angle annular dark field-scanning transmission electron microscopy in homoepitaxial δ-doped diamond layers

To develop further diamond related devices, the concentration and spatial location of dopants should be controlled down to the nanometer scale. Scanning transmission electron microscopy using the high angle annular dark field mode is shown to be sensitive to boron doping in diamond epilayers. An analytical procedure is described, whereby local boron concentrations above 1020 cm−3 were quantitatively derived down to nanometer resolution from the signal dependence on thickness and boron content. Experimental boron local doping profiles measured on diamond p−/p++/p− multilayers are compared to macroscopic profiles obtained by secondary ion mass spectrometry, avoiding reported artefacts.

Tm-doped TiO2 and Tm2Ti2O7 pyrochlore nanoparticles: enhancing the photocatalytic activity of rutile with a pyrochlore phase

Summary Tm-doped TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized using a water-controlled hydrolysis reaction. Analysis was performed in order to determine the influence of the dopant concentration and annealing temperature on the phase, crystallinity, and electronic and optical properties of the resulting material. Various characterization techniques were utilized such as X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and UV–vis spectroscopy. For the samples annealed at 773 and 973 K, anatase phase TiO2 was obtained, predominantly internally doped with Tm3+. ICP–AES showed that a doping concentration of up to 5.8 atom % was obtained without reducing the crystallinity of the samples. The presence of Tm3+ was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and UV–vis spectroscopy: the incorporation of Tm3+ was confirmed by the generation of new absorption bands that could be assigned to Tm3+ transitions. Furthermore, when the samples were annealed at 1173 K, a pyrochlore phase (Tm2Ti2O7) mixed with TiO2 was obtained with a predominant rutile phase. The photodegradation of methylene blue showed that this pyrochlore phase enhanced the photocatalytic activity of the rutile phase.

Heteroepitaxial CVD Growth of 3C-SiC on Diamond Substrate

This work presents the successful CVD heteroepitaxial growth of 3C-SiC on diamond (100) substrates. When performing a direct SiC growth at 1500°C on such substrate, it leads to polycrystalline deposit. The use of a substrate pretreatment involving silicon deposition allows forming a more continuous and smoother layer. Electron BackScatter Diffraction and Transmission Electron Microscopy all revealed that the 3C-SiC layer grown on the (100) diamond substrate is monocrystalline and well oriented.

3C-SiC Seeded Growth on Diamond Substrate by VLS Transport

This work deals with the localized epitaxial growth of SiC on (100) diamond substrate using the Vapour-Liquid-Solid (VLS) transport. An epitaxial relationship of grown SiC with the seed was succesfully achieved when inserting a silicidation step before the VLS growth. This silicidation consists in the formation of a SiC intermediate layer on the diamond substrate by solid-state reaction with a silicon layer deposited at 1000 or 1350 °C. On the 1350°C formed SiC buffer layer, p-doped 3C-SiC(100) islands elongated in the <110> directions were obtained after VLS growth. For the 1000°C buffer layer, the SiC deposit after VLS growth is much denser but mostly polycrystalline. Interfacial reactivity and diffusion are considered to explain the obtained results.