Improved diamond surfaces following lift-off and plasma treatments as observed by x-ray absorption spectroscopy

Alastair Stacey, Virginia S. Drumm, Barbara A. Fairchild, Kumar Ganesan, Sergey Rubanov, Rafi Kalish, Bruce C.C. Cowie, Steven Prawer, Alon Hoffman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

We have investigated the nature of the residual damage in diamond crystals following the ion implantation/graphitization "lift-off" process, using near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. A defective but crystalline interface is found, which displays dense pre-edge unoccupied states and an almost complete loss of the core-level C 1s exciton signature. This residual crystalline damage is resistant to standard chemical etching, however a hydrogen plasma treatment is found to completely recover a pristine diamond surface. Analysis and removal of residual ion-induced damage is considered crucial to the performance of many diamond device architectures.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number181907
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume98
Issue number18
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2 2011
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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