A new technical titled “The effects of sub-monolayer laser etching on the chemical and electrical properties of the (100) diamond surface” was published by researchers at Macquarie University and MIT.
Abstract
“Tailoring the surface chemistry of diamond is critical to a range of applications from quantum science to electronics. It has been recently shown that dosing the diamond surface with pulsed UV light at fluences below the ablation threshold provides a practical method for precision etching of the surface. Here, we track the evolution of the surface chemistry and its electrical properties as a function of dose using x-ray surface analysis, Hall and resistance measurements. It is found that the surface properties evolve rapidly, even for doses that correspond to removal of less than 5% of the top carbon monolayer and fluences less than 1 J/cm2. As well altering XPS-measured surface populations, sub-monolayer etch doses lower the valence band by up to 0.2 eV, and produce a permanent increase in the conductivity of the hydrogen terminated surface by up to 7 times. Similar enhancements in conductivity are obtained for doses that remove up to 1600 ML. The results provide guidance for manipulating diamond surface chemistry by UV laser etching and introduce a promising method for enhancing the performance of diamond devices such as field-effect transistors.”
Find the technical paper here. November 2024. Macquarie University’s news article is here.
Moshkani, Mojtaba, Michael W. Geis, James E. Downes, and Richard P. Mildren. “The effects of sub-monolayer laser etching on the chemical and electrical properties of the (100) diamond surface.” Applied Surface Science (2024): 161816.
Leave a Reply