Diamond films for electronic applications

In the last decade, the development of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) started a rush for research on thin film diamond as a potential electronics device material. The first components, such as Schottky diodes, Field Effect Transistors and UV/XRD detectors have already been demonstrated. However, their performances have fallen far short of what might be expected. One of the reasons is the fact that CVD diamond films contain intrinsic and extrinsic defects, leading to localized states in the bandgap and consequently deteriorating the electronic and optical properties. Another problem one has to deal with is the difficulty to n-dope diamond films. Theoretical studies indicate P, Li, Na and N as possible n-dopants but in practice donor concentrations in n-doped diamond are generally very low and moreover a compensation of the active dopants appears to be present.