English

Doping-limitations of cubic boron nitride: effects of unintentional defects on shallow doping

Materials Science 2022-02-04 v1

Abstract

Cubic boron nitride (cBN) is an ultra-wide bandgap, super-hard material with potential for extreme-temperature and -pressure applications. A proof-of-principle p-n junction using cBN was demonstrated almost three decades ago. However, to date, there remain two unresolved challenges that prevent its practical use in technologies: (i) it is difficult to produce high-quality cBN films and (ii) it is difficult to controllably n- and p-dope its matrix. In this theoretical work, we study the reasons for doping-limitations, which is an acute issue in realizing cBN-based electronics. In particular, we find that different unintentionally-present intrinsic and extrinsic defects act as compensating defects and/or introduce trap states. In turn, the presence of these defects and their complexes affect the incorporation, as well as the electronic structure properties, of shallow dopants [silicon and beryllium], which are introduced intentionally to n- and p-dope cBN. Our analysis of doping-limitations provides a path towards finding solutions for controllably n- and p-doping cBN.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2107.04454,
  title  = {Doping-limitations of cubic boron nitride: effects of unintentional defects on shallow doping},
  author = {Tamanna Joshi and Pankaj Kumar and Bipul Poudyal and Sean Paul Russell and Priyanka Manchanda and Pratibha Dev},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.04454},
  year   = {2022}
}