Contact resistance of various metallisation schemes to superconducting boron doped diamond between 1.9 and 300 K

• Published in: Carbon (New York) 2021-07, Vol.179, p.13-19
• Main Authors: Manifold, Scott A., Klemencic, Georgina, Thomas, Evan L.H., Mandal, Soumen, Bland, Henry, Giblin, Sean R., Williams, Oliver A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Boron; Carbon; Chromium; Contact resistance; Cryogenic temperature; Diamond: boron doped; Diamonds; Gold; Low resistance; Metal contacts; Modulus of elasticity; Molybdenum; Platinum; Room temperature; Superconductivity; Tantalum; Temperature; Temperature dependence; Titanium; Transmission lines
• ISSN: 0008-6223; 1873-3891
• DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2021.02.079

Diamond is a material that offers potential in numerous device applications. In particular, highly boron doped diamond is attractive due to its superconductivity and high Young’s Modulus. The fabrication of stable, low resistance, ohmic contacts is essential to ensure proper device function. Previous work has established the efficacy of several methods of forming suitable contacts to diamond at room temperature and above, including carbide forming and carbon soluble metallisation schemes. Herein, the stability of several contact schemes (Ti, Cr, Mo, Ta and Pd) to highly boron doped nanocrystalline diamond was verified down to the cryogenic temperatures with modified Transmission Line Model (TLM) measurements. While all contact schemes remained ohmic, a significant temperature dependency is noted at Tc and at the lowest temperatures the contact resistances ranged from Ti/Pt/Au with (8.83 ± 0.10) × 10−4 Ω cm to Ta/Pt/Au with (8.07 ± 0.62) × 10−6 Ω cm. [Display omitted]