ELECTRICAL-CONDUCTION AND DEEP LEVELS IN POLYCRYSTALLINE DIAMOND FILMS

We have studied the dark conductivity (field, temperature, and frequency dependence), and the photoconductivity in undoped polycrystalline diamond films. Detailed analysis reveals that either of two alternative models can be invoked to explain all the observed features of the dark conductivity. The first model is a Hill-type hopping conduction involving the presence of discrete acceptor states located at 0.91 eV above the valence band with a density around 10(17) cm(-3). The second model involves the presence of a band-tail of acceptor states extending about 1 eV above the valence band. In this case, variable range hopping conduction dominates at low fields with a density of states at the Fermi level around 5X10(15) cm(-3) eV(-1), while space charge limited currents dominate at high fields. The states controlling the dark conductivity give rise to photoconduction with a threshold around 0.85 eV and a peak at 1.1 eV. The shape of the photoconductivity spectrum suggests that lattice relaxation (with a Franck-Condon shift around 0.08 eV) occurs at these states. Peaks in the photoconductivity at 1.4 eV and at 1.9 eV give evidence for the presence of deeper states in these films. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.