Modulating Band Gap of Boron Doping in Amorphous Carbon Nano-Film

Abstract

Amorphous carbon (a-C) films are attracting considerable attention to due their large optical band gap (Eopt) range of 1−4 eV. But the hopping conducting mechanism of boron doping a-C (a-C:B) is still mysterious. To exploring the intrinsic reasons behind the semiconductor properties of a-C:B, in this work, the boron doping a-C (a-C:B) nano-film was prepared, and the growth rate and Eopt changing were analyzed by controlling the different experimental conditions of magnetron sputtering. A rapid deposition rate of 10.55 nm/min was obtained. The Eopt is reduced from 3.19 eV to 2.78 eV by improving the substrate temperature and sputtering power. The proportion of sp2/sp3 increasing was uncovered with narrowing the Eopt. The shrinking Eopt can be attributed to the fact that boron atoms act as a fluxing agent to promote carbon atoms to form sp2 hybridization at low energy. Furthermore, boron atoms can impede the formation of σ bonds in carbon atom sp3 hybridization by forming B−C bonds with high energy, and induce the sp3 hybridization transfer to sp2 hybridization. This work is significant to further study of amorphous semiconductor films.

Keywords

• semiconductor
• amorphous materials
• carbon materials