The local environment of Co in B₅CH_x

Authors

• Peter A. Dowben, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• A. Yu. Ignatov, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• Jing Lui, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Ralph Skomski, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2-20-2008

Comments

Published in JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 103, 07D125 (2008). Copyright © 2008 American Institute of Physics. Used by permission.

Abstract

Cobalt-doped boron carbides produced by simultaneous plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of carborane and cobaltocene are investigated. Cobalt does not dope plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition grown boron carbides as a random fragment of the cobaltocene source gas. The Co atoms are fivefold boron coordinated (R=2.1 Å) and chemically bonded to the icosahedral cages of B₁₀CH_x or B₉C₂H_y. Pairwise Co doping occurs with the cobalt atoms favoring sites about 5.3 Å apart. The cobalt strongly hybridizes with the molecular orbitals of the icosahedral cage, and the states in the region of the band gap probably have a strong cobalt weight.