Julien Pernot

Extreme dielectric strength in boron doped homoepitaxial diamond

The fabrication of Schottky diodes withstanding breakdown voltages up to 10 kV is demonstrated. A corresponding electric field of 7.7 MV/cm at the center of the diode is evaluated with the help of a two-dimensional finite elements software. These properties result from a net shallow acceptor concentration below 10(16) cm(-3) in the first micrometers of an epitaxial film with optimized crystalline quality and a special oxidizing treatment of its surface, allowing the true dielectric strength of bulk diamond to be revealed.

High hole mobility in boron doped diamond for power device applications

Low boron doped homoepitaxial diamond layers were grown on Ib (100) diamond substrates with oxygen added to the gas mixture. The acceptor density of the samples has been estimated by C(V) and Hall effect to lie close to 1016 cm−3 with a maximum low field Hall mobility value of 1870 cm2/V s at 292 K. The presence of oxygen in the gas phase is shown to be a key parameter to obtain such characteristics. The mobility parameters required to simulate the electrical behavior of devices between 300 K and 500 K are then determined for a wide doping range.

Electrical transport in n-type 4H silicon carbide

Free electron density and low field electron mobility of 4H–SiC in the temperature range of 35–900 K are examined experimentally and theoretically. Five samples produced by cold-wall atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition and doped with nitrogen from 3.5×1015 cm−3 to 7.5×1017 cm−3 are investigated using the electric conductivity and Hall measurements. A complete description of the electron density and mobility is presented taking into account inequivalent positions of cubic and hexagonal donor sites as well as valley-orbit splittings of the donor levels. A good agreement between experiment and theory is achieved for all samples and it is demonstrated that the scattering of electrons by neutral donors is a dominant mode in 4H–SiC at low temperatures. The deformation potential for the intravalley scattering by acoustic phonons and coupling constants for the intervalley scattering by acoustic and optic phonons are determined. The dependence of electron mobility on doping at constant temperatures 77 K...

Zr/oxidized diamond interface for high power Schottky diodes

High forward current density of 103 A/cm2 (at 6 V) and a breakdown field larger than 7.7 MV/cm for diamond diodes with a pseudo-vertical architecture, are demonstrated. The power figure of merit is above 244 MW/cm2 and the relative standard deviation of the reverse current density over 83 diodes is 10% with a mean value of 10−9 A/cm2. These results are obtained with zirconium as Schottky contacts on the oxygenated (100) oriented surface of a stack comprising an optimized lightly boron doped diamond layer on a heavily boron doped one, epitaxially grown on a Ib substrate. The origin of such performances are discussed.

Activation of aluminum implanted at high doses in 4H–SiC

We report an investigation of the electrical activation of aluminum implanted at high dose in 4H–SiC. We show that at reasonably high temperature implantation and annealing conditions, one activates about 37.5% of the implanted species. Of course, the final (concentration-dependent) activation ratio differs slightly from this average value but varies only between 0.5 and 0.25 when the targeted concentration increases from 3.33×1018 to 1021 cm−3. Provided a standard mobility can be maintained, this results in fairly low sheet resistance. The best (lowest) value obtained in this work is 15 mΩ cm at 700 K (95 mΩ cm at room temperature) for a 190-nm-thick layer implanted with 1021 atoms cm−3. In MESA-etched p–n junctions with a 100 μm diameter, this resulted in a typical on-resistance of 1.5 mΩ cm2, mainly limited by the substrate and n− epitaxial layer.

Hall electron mobility in diamond

The low field Hall mobility of electron in diamond was investigated from room temperature to 873K, both experimentally and theoretically. The acoustic deformation potential for electron scattering is determined by fitting of theoretical calculations to experimental data for high quality {111} homoepitaxial phosphorus-doped diamond films. A good agreement is obtained over a large doping range. A discrepancy for the electron mobilities measured under optical excitation is discussed. The maximum Hall mobility achievable at thermodynamical equilibrium in low compensated n-type diamond is shown to be close to 1000cm2∕Vs at room temperature.

Electrical transport properties of aluminum-implanted 4H–SiC

The free hole density and low-field mobility of aluminum-doped 4H–SiC were investigated in the temperature range of 100–900K, both, experimentally and theoretically. Experimental data for implanted p-type 4H–SiC were compared with theoretical calculations using parameters determined for high-quality epitaxial layers. The deformation potential for intra- and intervalley scattering by acoustic phonons and the effective coupling constant for intra- and intervalley scattering by nonpolar optical phonons were determined. The detailed analysis of the implanted layers with aluminum-targeted concentration ranging from 3.33×1018to1021cm−3 shows that (i) about half of the implanted atoms are electrically active in the SiC lattice, (ii) a systematic compensation of about 10% of the doping level is induced by the implantation process, (iii) two different ionization energies for the aluminum atoms have to be used. Their origin is discussed in terms of inequivalent hexagonal and cubic lattice sites. Finally, the doping...

Free electron density and mobility in high-quality 4H–SiC

The free electron density and low-field electron mobility of 4H–SiC is examined in the temperature range 35–900 K. In good samples the electron density is constant in the temperature range 300–900 K, which offers interesting possibilities for high temperature sensor applications. On the best sample an experimental electron mobility of 12 400 cm2/V s at 50 K is found. A complete description of the temperature dependence of the electron density and mobility is given. We take into account the effects of the two inequivalent lattice sites as well as the valley–orbit splitting of the ground state at the hexagonal sites. The dependence of room-temperature mobility on electron concentration is established, described theoretically and compared with the results obtained by different authors.

Metal oxide semiconductor structure using oxygen-terminated diamond

Metal-oxide-semiconductor structures with aluminum oxide as insulator and p-type (100) mono-crystalline diamond as semiconductor have been fabricated and investigated by capacitance versus voltage and current versus voltage measurements. The aluminum oxide dielectric was deposited using low temperature atomic layer deposition on an oxygenated diamond surface. The capacitance voltage measurements demonstrate that accumulation, depletion, and deep depletion regimes can be controlled by the bias voltage, opening the route for diamond metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor. A band diagram is proposed and discussed.

Direct Imaging of p–n Junction in Core–Shell GaN Wires

While core-shell wire-based devices offer a promising path toward improved optoelectronic applications, their development is hampered by the present uncertainty about essential semiconductor properties along the three-dimensional (3D) buried p-n junction. Thanks to a cross-sectional approach, scanning electron beam probing techniques were employed here to obtain a nanoscale spatially resolved analysis of GaN core-shell wire p-n junctions grown by catalyst-free metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy on GaN and Si substrates. Both electron beam induced current (EBIC) and secondary electron voltage constrast (VC) were demonstrated to delineate the radial and axial junction existing in the 3D structure. The Mg dopant activation process in p-GaN shell was dynamically controlled by the ebeam exposure conditions and visualized thanks to EBIC mapping. EBIC measurements were shown to yield local minority carrier/exciton diffusion lengths on the p-side (∼57 nm) and the n-side (∼15 nm) as well as depletion width in the range 40-50 nm. Under reverse bias conditions, VC imaging provided electrostatic potential maps in the vicinity of the 3D junction from which acceptor Na and donor Nd doping levels were locally determined to be Na = 3 × 10(18) cm(-3) and Nd = 3.5 × 10(18) cm(-3) in both the axial and the radial junction. Results from EBIC and VC are in good agreement. This nanoscale approach provides essential guidance to the further development of core-shell wire devices.