The incorporation of Nickel and Phosphorus dopants into Boron-Carbon alloy thin films

Authors

D.N. McIlroy, University of Idaho
S.-D. Hwang, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
K. Yang, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
N. Remmes, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Peter A. Dowben, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
A.A. Ahmad, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
N.J. Ianno, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
J.Z. Li, Kansas State University, Manhattan
H.X. Jiang, Kansas State University, Manhattan

Date of this Version

November 1998

Comments

Published in Applied Physics A 67 (1998), pp. 335-342. Copyright © Springer-Verlag 1998. Used by permission. The publisher’s version is online @ http://springerlink.metapress.com/content/1432-0630/

Abstract

The structural and electronic properties of nickeland phosphorus-doped boron–carbon (B₅C) alloy thin films grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition have been examined. The Ni-doped boron–carbon alloys were grown using closo-1,2-dicarbadodecaborane (C₂B₁₀H₁₂) as the boron–carbon source compound and nickelocene (Ni(C₅H₅)₂) as the nickel source. The phosphorus-doped alloys were grown using the single-source compound: dimeric chloro-phospha(III)-carborane ([C₂B₁₀H₁₀PCl] ₂). Nickel doping increased the conductivity, relative to undoped B₅C, by six orders of magnitude from 10^-9 to 10^-3 (Ω cm) ^-1 and transformed the material from a p-type semiconductor to an n-type. Phosphorus doping decreased the conductivity, relative to undoped B₅C, by two orders of magnitude and increased the band gap from 0.9eV for the undoped material to 2.6eV. Infrared absorption spectra of the nickel-and phosphorus- doped B₅C alloys were relatively unchanged from those of undoped B₅C. X-ray diffraction suggests that the phosphorus-doped material may be a different polytype from the Ni-doped and undoped B₅C alloys.