Carrier mobility enhancement on the H-terminated diamond surface

The surface conductivity on the H-terminated diamond is still an interesting topic in the field of diamond electronics. Until now, the carrier mobility in the conductive channel has been limited to below 200cm2/Vs due to the various surface scattering mechanisms. In this paper, a high mobility conductive channel on the H-terminated diamond surface was reported. Firstly, the high quality diamond films were deposited on the commercial CVD diamond substrates. After polishing, the H-termination was obtained by hydrogen plasma treatment. The surface morphology of the H-terminated diamond was observed by atomic force microscope (AFM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The crystal quality on the diamond surface was characterized by Raman spectroscopy. The impurities in the crystals were tested by photoluminescence spectroscopy. The surface conductivity of H-terminated diamond was monitored comprehensively by Hall test. It can be found that the sheet resistance decreases much and the carrier mobility increases dramatically after the hydrogen plasma treatment and mechanical cleaning. The maximum mobility value is up to 365cm2/Vs with carrier density of 2.9 × 1012 cm−2, which is the highest value reported. Raman spectra of diamond surface show that a peak appears at 1121.4 cm−2 after the hydrogen plasma treatment, which corresponds to the nanocrystal diamond or carbon clusters of sp3 bonded material. The corresponding mobility enhancement mechanism on the H-terminated diamond surface was proposed.