M-I Transition in a-Conducting Carbon Films Induced by Boron Doping

TL;DR

This study investigates how boron doping influences the structural and electrical properties of amorphous carbon films, inducing a metal-insulator transition and affecting their conduction mechanisms across different preparation temperatures.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the doping-induced metal-insulator transition in amorphous carbon films and explores the effects of boron on their structural and electronic properties.

Findings

Boron doping increases graphitic ordering at lower temperatures.

Doping induces a metal-insulator transition within 1.3 K to 300 K.

Insulating films show a crossover from Mott to Efros-Shklovskii VRH at low temperatures.

Abstract

The amorphous conducting carbon films have been prepared at three different preparation temperatures with different boron-doping levels. The structural and transport properties of the same have been studied. X-ray diffraction measurements show that the 'd' value of the carbon depends both on atomic percentage of B in the carbon network and also on the preparation temperature. Doping of boron increases the structural graphitic ordering of the films prepared at lower temperatures. On the contrary for the films prepared at higher temperatures the ordering deteriorates as the boron content increases. The d.c electrical transport measurements on these amorphous conducting carbon films show, doping induced metal-insulator transition via critical regime, in the temperature interval of 1.3 K to 300K. Also the films in the insulating regime show a crossover from Mott to ES VRH for T < 55K. Additional support to this transition is evident from negative magnetoresistance in VRH regime when the sample is deep inside the insulating side of MI transition. The calculated value of density of states at Fermi level shows a gradual change with corresponding variation in boron doping level, indicating a change in the number of conducting pi electrons due to substitutional doping of boron in the carbon network. However for the films exhibiting critical behaviour, the magnetic field dependence of magnetoresistance was not as predicted by the available theoretical models. Various calculated parameters like localization length, density of states at the Fermi level and coulomb gap for insulating samples were calculated from the experimental data.