No abstract

Presence of deep-level states may have serious effects in the performance of devices based on diamond. For example, in the case of p-n junction devices, the reverse leakage current, the switching speed, and on-state conduction characteristics are dependent on the lifetimes of the carriers, which in turn are controlled by the position, density, and capture cross sections of the traps. Also, deeplevel impurities lead to compensation effects, resulting in changes in the background resistivity. Changes in resistivity affect the breakdown voltage and current conduction in power Schottky rectifiers and p-n junction devices. IV. CONCLUSIONS Current-voltage characteristics of P-doped polycrystalline Si, Au, and Pt contacts on natural diamond crystals have been investigated. These contacts show excellent rectification with low reverse leakage current densities. Although the I-V and C-V characteristics indicate the presence of a barrier, the I-V characteristics are apparently dominated by bulk effects rather than by thermionic emission over the barrier. Logarithmic plots of the I-V characteristics in the forward direction indicate space-charge-limited current conduction through the active volume of the devices. The natural diamond crystals investigated show the presence of deep levels in the energy range 0.5-0.8 eV above the valence band.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract