Fabrication and characteristics of nitrogen-doped nanocrystalline diamond/p-type silicon heterojunction

Nitrogen-doped nanocrystalline diamond films(N-NDFs)have been deposited on p-type silicon(Si)by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition.The reaction gases are methane,hydrogen,and nitrogen without the conventional argon(Ar).The N-NDFs were characterized by X-ray diffraction,Raman spectroscopy,and scanning electron microscopy.The grain sizes are of 810 nm in dimension.The N-NDF shows n-type behavior and the corresponding N-NDF/p-Si heterojunction diodes are realized with a high rectification ratio of 102 at7.8 V,and the current density reaches to1.35 A/cm2 at forward voltage of 8.5 V.The findings suggest that fabricated by CH4/H2/N2 without Ar,the N-NDFs and the related rectifying diodes are favorable for achieving high performance diamond-based optoelectronic devices.