Laser direct write microprocessing of diamond: Generation of highly conductive tracks in diamond like carbon (DLC) and polycrystalline freestanding diamond films

Laser direct-write and laser doping techniques allow variance in the properties of wide bandgap materials, particularly diamond. Conductive and n-doped tracks are created on different diamond substrates using these techniques. The effects of various process parameters such as laser material interaction time, number of repeated exposures, and type of irradiation environment are investigated. Different analytical techniques are used to study microstructure, crystal structure and chemical bonding of the elements in the laser treated tracks. N-type schottky barrier junction on a laser treated DLC (diamond-like carbon) film is demonstrated. Both capacitance-voltage and current-voltage characteristics of the laser-fabricated junction are measured and used to determine the dopant profile along the junction width. The laser direct-write technique reduces the number of steps in processing semiconductors, and the technique is highly controllable and a cost effective tool for rapid prototyping as well as commercial fabrication of wide bandgap semiconductor devices. This technique is capable of ohmic contact synthesis, dielectric synthesis and selective area doping as well as etching of a wide variety of semiconductor materials. Various applications of the laser direct-write technique in semiconductor device fabrication are explored.