Doping and electrical properties of cubic boron nitride thin films: A critical review

Cubic boron nitride (c-BN) is a promising material for high-power and high-temperature electronic devices operating in harsh environments due to its outstanding properties including a wide band-gap, good chemical stability, high thermal conductivity, and high breakdown field. The electronic applications of c-BN have received considerable attention, benefiting from the progress in c-BN thin film deposition techniques during the last few years. The present article reviews the latest developments in doping and electrical properties of c-BN thin films. Following a brief introduction on film growth, we present calculated theoretical results on electronic structure as well as the energies of native defects and impurity dopants in c-BN. In recent experimental research, several dopants, including Be, Mg, Zn, S, and Si, have been incorporated into c-BN thin films during deposition or by post ion implantation, resulting in both n- and p-type conduction. These results are summarized and discussed in Section 3. In addition, results on c-BN/metal-contacts and p–n junctions based on intrinsic or doped c-BN thin films are discussed in Section 4. Finally, current status and future prospects for doping and electrical properties of c-BN thin films are discussed