The exposure of heavily B-doped (2 x 1019 to 4 x 1020/cm3) diamond to a D plasma resulted in the formation of passive B-D complexes which had a dissociation barrier of 2.5eV. There was evidence that deeper D traps existed in heavily-doped material. By using first-principles methods, it was shown that nearest-neighbor B pairs were bound and could efficiently trap D. The calculated binding energy for the B-D pair was in good agreement with experimentally obtained values. A comparison of the measured D and B concentrations with the model suggested that B dimers were deeper D traps, but that complementary infra-red or Raman measurements would be needed before drawing final conclusions concerning the formation of B2D or B2D2 complexes.

Deep Hydrogen Traps in Heavily B-Doped Diamond. J.P.Goss, P.R.Briddon, R.Jones, Z.Teukam, D.Ballutaud, F.Jomard, J.Chevallier, M.Bernard, A.Deneuville: Physical Review B, 2003, 68[23], 235209 (10pp)