Fabrication and characterization of novel electronic devices using tetrahedral amorphous carbon

Much interest has been shown in the use of tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) deposited by filtered cathodic are as an inexpensive, and easily produced, wide band-gap semiconductor in the fabrication of electronic devices. There has, however, been limited success in producing devices with properties that might make its use in electronic applications commercially viable. This lack of success may in part be due to the high density of trap states in the mobility gap as reflected in ta-Cs rather high ESR signal of similar to 10 spin/g. As a result there has been a concerted effort to reduce its trap density by various means such as hydrogenation and substrate bias. Recent results at the University of Sydney suggest, however, that a new range of possibilities exist, not in attempts to reduce these trap states, but in the utilization of them as a means of producing nonvolatile digital information storage. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.