Electrical properties of boron nitride thin films grown by neutralized nitrogen ion assisted vapor deposition

Boron nitride (BN) thin films (containing mixed cBN/hBN phase) have been deposited on Si(100) substrates using neutralized nitrogen beam and electron beam evaporation of boron. All as-deposited BN films were p type with a room-temperature carrier concentration in the range of 5×1016 to 1×1017 cm−3. The Mg-doped BN films showed carrier concentrations in the range of 1.2×1018 cm−3 to 5.2×1018 cm−3 when the Mg cell temperature was varied from 250 to 500 °C. The films were analyzed for both majority elements (B and N) and dopant/impurity (Si, Mg, Fe, etc.) incorporation using secondary ion mass spectroscopy and mass spectroscopy of recoiled ions (MRSI). MRSI is shown to be superior for dopant characterization of boron nitride thin films.