Investigation of current-voltage characteristics of oxide region induced by atomic force microscope on hydrogen-terminated diamond surface

The current-voltage characteristic of the atomic force microscope (AFM) field-assisted local oxidized region on an undoped hydrogen-terminated (H-terminated) diamond surface is investigated. The barrier height on the top of the valence band between the undoped H-terminated diamond surface and the AFM oxidized surface is estimated by Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) tunneling current analysis. By fitting the parameter of the slope in the F-N plot, the barrier height is estimated to be 61 meV in the electrically isolated conductive island structure. On the other hand, the barrier height is also estimated to be 72 meV in the lateral tunneling diode.