A comparative study of p-type diamond films using Raman and transport measurements

The influence of deposition temperature in the properties of synthetic diamond films grown by two different chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techniques, hot-filament- and microwave-plasma-assisted, was investigated. These samples were obtained using the optimal growth conditions previously achieved in this work. Raman spectroscopy was employed in order to investigate the diamond film quality as a function of the deposition temperature. It was found that the nondiamond carbon bands decrease as the deposition temperature increases for both the deposition methods, leading to higher-quality diamond films. The micro- and macro-Raman spectra showed that the nondiamond band is already present in a single diamond grain. Both techniques provided well homogeneous diamond films and with equivalently good quality. Boron-doped diamond films with different carrier concentration levels were also studied. In order to get details about the electrical properties of the films, resistivity as a function of the boron concentration—in association with Raman spectra—and temperature-dependent transport measurements were employed. The results showed that the boron doping is the main responsible for the conductivity and that the variable range hopping (VRH) mechanism dominates the transport in these doped diamond films.