Be and Be-related impurities in diamond: density functional theory study

TL;DR

This study uses density functional theory to explore beryllium impurities in diamond, revealing their stability, electronic properties, and potential for n-type doping, especially when co-doped with nitrogen.

Contribution

It provides detailed computational insights into the geometries, stability, and electronic behavior of Be-related impurities and complexes in diamond, highlighting co-doping effects.

Findings

Be prefers substitutional sites over interstitials in diamond.

Co-doping with nitrogen reduces formation energy of Be-N complexes.

Be$_s$ acts as a deep donor, limiting room-temperature applications.

Abstract

First-principles density functional simulations were employed to investigate the geometries, electrical properties, and hyperfine structures of various beryllium-doped diamond configurations, including interstitial (Be$_i$), substitutional (Be$_s$), and beryllium-nitrogen (Be-N) complexes. The incorporation of Be into the diamond lattice is more favorable as a substitutional dopant than as an interstitial dopant, although both processes are endothermic. Interstitial Be could potentially exhibit motional averaging from planar to axial symmetry with an activation energy of 0.1 eV. The most stable Be$_s$ configuration has $T_{d}$ symmetry with a spin state of $S=1$. Co-doping with nitrogen reduces the formation energy of Be$_s$-N$_{n}$ $(n=1-4)$ complexes, which further decreases as the number of nitrogen atoms increases. This is attributed to the smaller covalent radius of nitrogen compared to carbon, resulting in reduced lattice distortion. Be$_s$-N$_3$ and Be$_s$-N$_4$ co-doping introduces shallow donors, while Be$_s$ exhibits $n$-type semiconductivity, but the deep donor level renders it impractical for room-temperature applications. These findings provide valuable insights into the behavior of beryllium as a dopant in diamond and highlight the potential of beryllium-nitrogen co-doping for achieving $n$-type diamond semiconductors.