Provided is a vanadium oxide film which shows substantially no hysteresis of resistivity changes due to temperature rising/falling, has a low resistivity at room temperature, has a large absolute value of the temperature coefficient of resistance, and shows semiconductor-like resistance changes in a wide temperature range. In the vanadium oxide film, a portion of the vanadium has been replaced by aluminum and copper, and the amount of substance of aluminum is 10 mol % based on the sum total of the amount of substance of vanadium, the amount of substance of aluminum, and the amount of substance of copper. This vanadium oxide film has a low resistivity, has a large absolute value of the temperature coefficient of resistance, and shows substantially no hysteresis of resistivity changes due to temperature rising/falling. This vanadium oxide film is produced by applying a mixture solution containing a vanadium organic compound, an aluminum organic compound, and a copper organic compound to a substrate, calcining the substrate at a temperature lower than the temperature at which the substrate decomposes, and irradiating the surface of the substrate onto which the mixture solution has been applied with ultraviolet light.

An n.sup.-type epitaxial layer is grown on a front surface of the silicon carbide substrate by a CVD method in a mixed gas atmosphere containing a source gas, a carrier gas, a doping gas, an additive gas, and a gas containing vanadium. The doping gas is nitrogen gas; and the gas containing vanadium is vanadium tetrachloride gas. In the mixed gas atmosphere, the vanadium bonds with the nitrogen, producing vanadium nitride, whereby the nitrogen concentration in the mixed gas atmosphere substantially decreases. As a result, the nitrogen taken in by the n.sup.-type epitaxial layer decreases and the n.sup.-type epitaxial layer including nitrogen and vanadium as dopants is grown having a low impurity concentration.

Examples of a method for producing a semiconductor device includes: forming a barrier layer having a composition of InAlN or InAlGaN over a channel layer; forming a transition layer having a composition of InGaN on the barrier layer while raising a growth temperature; and forming a cap layer of GaN on the transition layer.

A nitride semiconductor laminate includes: a substrate comprising a group III nitride semiconductor and including a surface and a reverse surface, the surface being formed from a nitrogen-polar surface, the reverse surface being formed from a group III element-polar surface and being provided on the reverse side from the surface; a protective layer provided at least on the reverse surface side of the substrate and having higher heat resistance than the reverse surface of the substrate; and a semiconductor layer provided on the surface side of the substrate and comprising a group III nitride semiconductor. The concentration of O in the semiconductor layer is lower than 110.sup.17 at/cm.sup.3.

A doped diamond semiconductor and method of production using a laser is disclosed herein. As disclosed, a dopant and/or a diamond or sapphire seed material may be added to a graphite based ablative layer positioned below a confinement layer, the ablative layer also being graphite based and positioned above a backing layer, to promote formation of diamond particles having desirable semiconductor properties via the action of a laser beam upon the ablative layer. Dopants may be incorporated into the process to activate the reaction sought to produce a material useful in production of a doped semiconductor or a doped conductor suitable for the purpose of modulating the electrical, thermal or quantum properties of the material produced. As disclosed, the diamond particles formed by either the machine or method of confined pulsed laser deposition disclosed may be arranged as semiconductors, electrical components, thermal components, quantum components and/or integrated circuits.

A III-nitride tunnel junction with a modified p-n interface, wherein the modified p-n interface includes a delta-doped layer to reduce tunneling resistance. The delta-doped layer may be doped using donor atoms comprised of Oxygen (O), Germanium (Ge) or Silicon (Si); acceptor atoms comprised of Magnesium (Mg) or Zinc (Zn); or impurities comprised of Iron (Fe) or Carbon (C).

A semiconductor structure comprising III-N materials, includes: a support substrate; a main layer of III-N material, the main layer comprising a first section disposed on the support substrate and a second section disposed on the first section; an inter-layer of III-N material, disposed between the first section and the second section in order to compress the second section of the main layer, wherein the structure's inter-layer consists of a lower layer disposed on the first section and an upper layer disposed on the lower layer and formed by a superlattice.

On a front surface of an n.sup.+-type starting substrate containing silicon carbide, a pin diode is configured having silicon carbide layers constituting an n.sup.+-type buffer layer, an n.sup.-type drift layer, and a p.sup.+-type anode layer sequentially formed by epitaxial growth. The n.sup.+-type buffer layer is formed by so-called co-doping of nitrogen and vanadium, which forms a recombination center, together with an n-type impurity. The n.sup.+-type buffer layer includes a first part disposed at a side of a second interface of the buffer layer with the substrate and a second part disposed at side of a first interface of the buffer layer with the drift layer. The vanadium concentration in the second part is lower than that in the first part. The vanadium concentration in the second part is at most one tenth of the maximum value Vmax of the vanadium concentration in the n.sup.+-type buffer layer.

One illustrative method disclosed includes, among other things, forming a first dielectric layer and forming first and second conductive structures comprising cobalt embedded in the first dielectric layer. A second dielectric layer is formed above and contacting the first dielectric layer. The first and second dielectric layers comprise different materials, and a portion of the second dielectric layer comprises carbon or nitrogen. A first cap layer is formed above the first and second conductive structures and the second dielectric layer.

A method of manufacturing a doped metal chalcogenide thin film includes depositing a dopant atom on a base material; and forming a doped metal chalcogenide thin film on the dopant atom-deposited base material by supplying heat and a reaction gas comprising a metal precursor and a chalcogen precursor to the dopant atom-deposited base material.