化学気相合成ダイヤモンドの成長とその評価

抄録

  Because diamond has extremely superior characteristics in many physical properties and device performance indices compared with main current semiconductor materials, it is highly expected as “an ultimate semiconductor material.” Diamond is an ever-evolving material for semiconductor production, and this fact is supported by the technology for synthesizing high quality diamond called the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. Till now, various specific techniques have been proposed and used to implement the CVD method. Recently, the microwave plasma CVD method has been becoming standard. As demonstrated by the history of the production of semiconductor materials such as silicon, diamond synthesis requires not only an increase in the crystalline quality of produced diamond but also the production of large size diamond crystals. These efforts are accelerating in the world, but, on the other hand, a breakthrough or significant advance in the development in diamond synthesis technologies is required. In other words, the microwave plasma-assisted CVD method is now becoming a standard technique for diamond synthesis, but one of the important aspects in future diamond research includes determining whether this method can be a perfect final approach for synthesizing large diamond crystals quickly and effectively.
  This paper discusses the characteristics of diamond when used as a semiconductor device substrate, together with the microwave plasma-assisted CVD method which is currently one of the representative diamond synthesis methods. Also this paper describes the cathodoluminescence method usually used to evaluate synthetically produced diamond.