Deep level transient spectroscopy spectra of the near Z-defect region (150-350K) were investigated for B implanted samples of low doses (10(8)-10(9) cm(-2)). For 300 degreesC implantation, a level at an energy of 0.41 eV below the conduction hand edge was found, referred to as the S-level. The S-center was shown to form in both implanted and electron irradiated 4H-SiC, either after room temperature (R.T.) implantation followed by mild heat treatments or lung R.T. storage (several months) or after 200-300 degreesC implantations/irradiations. The S-center was found to anneal out at temperatures above 250 degreesC.
In this work we present experimental results of several defects in 4H Sic that are of interest both from a fundamental and physical point of view. And also of great importance for device applications utilizing the Sic material. These defects include the temperature stable so called D1 defect, which is created after irradiation. This optical emission has been identified as an isoelectronic defect bound at a hole attractive pseudodonor, and we have been able to correlate this to the electrically observed hole trap HS1 seen in minority carrier transient spectroscopy (MCTS). It also includes the UD1 defect observed using absorption and FTIR and which is believed to be responsible for the semi-insulating behavior of material grown by the High temperature, HTCVD technique. Finally, we have described the formation and proper-ties of critical, generated defect in high power Sic bipolar devices. This is identified as a stacking fault in the Sic basal plane, using mainly white beam synchrotron Xray topography. The stacking fault is both optically and electrically active, by forming extended local potential reduction of the conduction band.
In this work we describe some of the defects in SiC observable using different optical characterisation techniques. This includes photoluminescence measurements to determine the presence of different defects. We also show that optical techniques can be developed for mapping characterisation, which are useful both for routine measurements and for determine spatial variations and presence of defects over larger areas. One such example is the lifetime mappings on epitaxial layers on entire wafers, which has shown the importance of structural defects replicated into the epitaxial layer. Optical measurements have also been correlated to structural measurements from X-ray topography to demonstrate the importance of the structural defects
We present experimental results related to several different intrinsic defects that in different ways influence the material properties and are therefore technologically important defects. This includes the so-called D1 defect which is created after irradiation and which is temperature stable. From the optical measurements we were able to identify the D1 bound exciton as an isoelectronic defect bound at a hole attractive pseudo-donor, and we have been able to correlate this to the electrically observed hole trap HS1 seen in minority carrier transient spectroscopy (MCTS). Finally, we describe the formation and properties of a critical, generated defect in high power SiC bipolar devices. It is identified as a stacking fault in the SiC basal plane. It can be seen as a local reduction of the carrier lifetime, in triangular or rectangular shape, which explains the enhanced forward voltage drop in the diodes. The entire stacking faults are also optically active as can be seen as dark triangles and rectangles in low temperature cathodo-luminescence, and the fault and their bounding partial dislocations are seen and identified using synchrotron topography. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
(Ga,Mn)/N/InGaN multiquantum well (MQW) diodes were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The current-voltage characteristics of the diodes show the presence of a parasitic junction between the (Ga,Mn)N and the n-GaN in the top contact layer due to the low conductivity of the former layer. Both the (Ga,Mn)N/InGaN diodes and control samples without Mn doping show no or very low (up to 10% at the lowest temperatures) optical (spin) polarization at zero field or 5 T, respectively. The observed polarization is shown to correspond to the intrinsic optical polarization of the InGaN MQW, due to population distribution between spin sublevels at low temperature, as separately studied by resonant optical excitation with a photon energy lower than the bandgap of both the GaN and (Ga,Mn)N. This indicates efficient losses in the studied structures of any spin polarization generated by optical spin orientation or electrical spin injection. The observed vanishing spin injection efficiency of the spin light-emitting diode (LED) is tentatively attributed to spin losses during the energy relaxation process to the ground state of the excitons giving rise to the light emission.
SiC is a semiconductor with very good material properties for high power, high frequency and high temperature applications. During device fabrication irradiation with particles is often used, e.g., ion-implantation, which creates intrinsic defects. The most persistent defect in SiC is DI that appears after irradiation and subsequent high temperature annealing. A direct method called Trapped Carrier Electroluminescence (TraCE) for correlating minority carrier traps with luminescence measurements is presented. A semi-transparent Schottky diode under reverse bias is illuminated with a laser pulse of above band gap light to create minority carriers that are captured to traps in the space charge region. Majority carriers are introduced when the reverse bias is removed and the space charge region is reduced. The majority carriers recombine with the trapped minority carriers and the emitted light from the recombination is detected. TraCE has been used to study and correlate the DI bound exciton luminescence from intrinsic defects in SiC with an electrically observed hole trap HS1. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
The electroluminescence from pn-diodes with (1) aluminum doped epitaxially grown, (2) aluminum implanted or (3) aluminum and boron implanted p-layer have been investigated. The temperature dependence for both the spectra and the decays of the major spectral components have been investigated at temperatures from 80 K to 550 K. The implanted diodes show implantation damage in the form of the D-1 center and lack of emission from the aluminum center. The epitaxial diodes show luminescence from the aluminum center. The band edge luminescence is visible above 150 K for the epitaxial diode and above 300 K for the implanted. The emission from deep boron can be seen in the aluminum and boron co-implanted diode and in the epitaxially grown diode that have an unintentional boron doping below 10(17) cm(-3).
The effect of neutron irradiation on 4H SiC epitaxial layers are studied. Several different doses of both fast and thermal neutrons have been used and the samples have been annealed from 500 degreesC to 2000 degreesC. The defect concentration dependence on the fast neutron flux and on the annealing temperature is investigated. At temperatures from 900 degreesC to 1300 degreesC new lines between 3960 Angstrom and 4270 Angstrom appear. They are similar in behavior to the E-A and D1 spectra and are assumed to be related to excitons bound to isoelectronic centers. After annealing at 2000 degreesC another new line appears at 3809 Angstrom. The similarity of this line with phosphorus in 6H makes us tentatively ascribe it to phosphorus.
The low residual doping of HTCVD grown semi-insulating SiC crystals enables the use of decreased concentrations of compensating deep levels, thereby providing new material solutions for microwave devices. Depending on the growth conditions, high resistivity crystals with either a dominating Si-vacancy absorption or with an EPR signature of intrinsic defects such as the C-vacancy and the Si-antisite are obtained. The electrical properties of substrates with resistivities above 10(11) Omega-cm are shown to be stable upon annealing during SiC epitaxy conditions. Micropipe closing at the initial growth stage enables the demonstration of low defect density off- and on-axis 2 2-inch semi-insulating 4H SiC substrates with micropipe densities down to 1.2 cm(-2).
Metal semiconductor field effect transistor structures have been grown in a hot-wall CVD reactor. Using trimethylaluminium and nitrogen, p- and n-type epitaxial layers were grown on semi insulating substrates. A comprehensive characterization study of thickness and doping of these multi structures has been performed by using scanning electron microscopy , secondary ion mass spectrometry, capacitance-voltage and low temperature photoluminescence. Optimisation of growth parameters has resulted in very abrupt doping profiles. The grown metal semiconductor field effect transistor structures have been processed and parts of the transistor properties are presented.
Ion implantation is an important technique for a successful implementation of commercial SiC devices. Much effort has also been devoted to optimising implantation and annealing parameters to improve the electrical device characteristics. However, there is a severe lack of understanding of the fundamental implantation process and the generation and annealing kinetics of point defects and defect complexes. Only very few of the most elementary intrinsic point defects have been unambiguously identified so far. To reach a deeper understanding of the basic mechanisms SiC samples have been implanted with a broad range of ions, energies, doses, etc., and the resulting defects and damage produced in the lattice have been studied with a multitude of characterisation techniques. In this contribution we will review some of the results generated recently and also try to indicate where more research is needed. In particular, deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) has been used to investigate point defects at very low doses and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) are used for studying the damage build-up at high doses. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Buried nitrogen delta-doped SiC 4H epitaxial layers have been grown in a horizontal hotwall chemical vapor deposition reactor. The history of the growth parameters was recorded. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and Capacitance-Voltage (CV) were carried out to investigate the nitrogen doping distribution. Evaluation of the growth rate as a function of the time is determined with emphasis on the beginning of the growth when a transient of the growth rate is observed.
The paper presents a study of the structure of the photoconductivity spectra of various 4H-SiC samples near the absorption edge. By means of comparison of the spectra of low doped (mid 10(14) cm(-3)), very low doped (in 10(13) cm(-3) range), and semi-insulating moderately doped samples, features in the photocurrent due to contribution from creation of free carriers (i.e., excitons in the continuum) can be recognised. This is used for determination of the free exciton binding energy, 20.5 +/- 1 meV, in agreement with a previous study. The second lowest conduction band and the spin-orbit split off valence band are also detected.
Recent results from studies of shallow donors, pseudodonors, and deep level defects in SiC are presented. The selection rules for transitions between the electronic levels of shallow donors in 4H-SiC in the dipole approximation are derived and the ionization energy for the N donor at hexagonal site is determined. Optical and electrical studies of the D-I center reveal the pseudodonor nature of this defect. Defects in high-purity semi-insulating (SI) SiC substrates including the carbon vacancy (V-C), silicon vacancy (V-Si), and (V-C-C-Si) pair are studied. The annealing behavior of these defects and their role in carrier compensation in SI 4H-SiC are discussed. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
This paper reports on the growth of high-quality GaN layers on SiC substrates by hotwall MOCVD. Use of AlN buffer with a thickness exceeding 50 nm is employed for the GaN deposition and it is found to encompass most of the misfit defects. A narrower X-ray rocking curve over asymmetric than over symmetric reflection is measured - full width at a half maximum (FWHM) of 350 arcsec vs. FWHM of 490 arcsec for 10.4 and 00.2 peaks, respectively, indicating high overall quality of the film. The free exciton photoluminescence emission peak has rather narrow FWHM of 5 meV. The typical thickness of the GaN layers is about 2 mum and they are completely depleted according to the capacitance-voltage profiling, which corresponds to estimated residual doping of less than 5x10(14) cm(-3). Only in some cases when the GaN layer is not depleted, deep level transient spectroscopy is performed and two deep traps with activation energies of 0.26 and 0.59 eV below the conduction band are measured.
Characteristics of boron in as-grown 4H-SiC layers produced by fast epitaxy, i.e. sublimation and vertical hot-wall CVD, were studied by electrical and optical measurements. The boron-related contribution to the net acceptor concentration in the layers (as determined by CV on p-type residual doped sublimation epitaxy layers), the presence of deep boron centers (as indicated by DLTS) and boron-related "green" emission at similar to 505 nm (as observed by CL) are detected for various growth temperatures and C/Si ratios. The results are discussed in relation with the C vacancies in the lattice that may be affected by growth rate and input C/Si ratio in the CVD process.
Since the 1997 publication of Silicon Carbide - A Review of Fundamental Questions and Applications to Current Device Technology edited by Choyke, et al., there has been impressive progress in both the fundamental and developmental aspects of the SiC field. So there is a growing need to update the scientific community on the important events in research and development since then. The editors have again gathered an outstanding team of the world's leading SiC researchers and design engineers to write on the most recent developments in SiC. The book is divided into five main categories: theory, crystal growth, characterization, processing and devices. Every attempt has been made to make the articles as up-to-date as possible and assure the highest standards of accuracy. As was the case for earlier SiC books, many of the articles will be relevant a decade from now so that this book will take its place next to the earlier work as a permanent and essential reference volume.
We applied four-wave mixing (FWM) technique for investigation of high temperature chemical vapour deposition (HTCVD) grown 4H-SiC samples with different doping levels. The determined minority electron and hole mobilities in heavily doped crystals at doping densities of 1019 cm(-3) were found to be equal to 116 and 52 cm(2)/Vs. In semi-insulating (SI) crystals, the ambipolar diffusion coefficient Da = 2.6 - 3.3 cm(2) A and carrier lifetimes of 1.5 - 2.5 ns have been measured. Irradiation of SI crystals by 6 MeV electrons resulted in essential decrease of carrier lifetime down to &SIM, 100 ps and clearly revealed the defect-assisted carrier generation with respect to two-photon interband transitions before irradiation.
Defects in high quality 4H silicon carbide epilayers have been studied using Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) and Minority Carrier Transient Spectroscopy (MCTS). Both intrinsic defect related centers HS1, Z(1/2). EH6/EH7 and shallow and deep boron centers were found. Electrical properties of the boron related traps are analyzed. Comparison with the optical decay measurements shows that boron is related to the observed lateral variations of the minority carrier lifetime in low doped 4H-SiC epilayers.
With low energy electron irradiation in the 80-250 keV range, we were able to create only those intrinsic defects related to the initial displacements of carbon atoms in the silicon carbide lattice. Radiation induced majority and minority carrier traps were analyzed using capacitance transient techniques. Four electron traps (EH1, Z1/Z2, EH3, and EH7) and one hole trap (HS2) were detected in the measured temperature range. Their concentrations show linear increase with the irradiation dose, indicating that no divacancies or di-interstitials are generated. None of the observed defects was found to be an intrinsic defect-impurity complex. The energy dependence of the defect introduction rates and annealing behavior are presented and possible microscopic models for the defects are discussed. No further defects were detected for electron energies above the previously assigned threshold for the displacement of the silicon atom at 250 keV. © 2004 American Institute of Physics. 10.1063/1.1778819.
We report observation of recombination enhanced defect annealing in 4H-SiC detected by capacitance transient spectroscopy and low temperature photoluminescence (PL). Intrinsic defect centers, created by 160 keV electron irradiation, reduce in concentration after illumination at temperatures much lower than previously reported annealing temperatures of 400 and 800 °C. The effect is observed after both external intense above band gap laser excitation, and with recombination in a forward biased pin diode. PL measurements show that several lines, normally detected after electron irradiation, have almost or entirely disappeared by recombination enhanced annealing at room temperature. From capacitance transient measurements, the annealing enhancement is found to be largest for the HS2 hole trap, while the EH1 and EH3 electron traps also anneal out by recombination enhanced reaction but at a lower rate. © 2005 American Institute of Physics.
Recombination enhanced defect annealing of intrinsic defects in 4H-SiC, created by low energy electron irradiation, has been observed. A reduction the defect concentration at temperature lower than the normal annealing temperature of 400&DEG, C and 800&DEG, C is observed after either above bandgap laser excitation or forward biasing of a pin-diode. The presence of the defects has been studied both electrically and optically using capacitance transient spectroscopy and low temperature photoluminescence. Photoluminescence measurements show that several lines, normally detected after electron irradiation, have almost or entirely disappeared by recombination enhanced annealing at room temperature. From capacitance transient measurements, the annealing enhancement is found to be largest for the HS2 hole trap, while the EH1 and EH3 electron traps also anneal out by recombination enhanced reaction but at a lower rate.
Defects created by proton irradiation of n-type 4H-SiC epilayers with different fluences and six annealing steps were investigated by Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) and Minority Carrier Transient Spectroscopy (MCTS). Three previously unreported hole traps with energy levels of E-V + 0.35 eV, E-V + 0.44 eV, E-V + 0.80 eV and several electron traps were found. Annealing properties and dependence upon irradiation dose of majority and minority carrier traps is presented. High temperature stability of a E-V + 0.35 eV trap has been demonstrated.
We use the recent findings about the pseudodonor character of the D1 defect to establish an energy-level scheme in the band gap for the defect, predicting the existence of a hole trap at about 0.35 eV above the valence band. Using minority carrier transient spectroscopy, we prove that the D1 defect indeed is correlated to such a hole trap. In addition, we show that the D1 defect is not correlated to the Z1/2 electron trap, in contrast to what was previously reported. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.
Boron related photoluminescence (PL) and capacitance transient spectroscopy (DLTS and MCTS) peaks have been investigated around SIMS craters. Enhancement of boron and hydrogen related PL was observed in the vicinity of the crater, whereas the concentration of electrically active boron as measured by MCTS has decreased considerably. Comparison of the boron MCTS peak behavior after electron and proton irradiation is presented. Possible defect models based on the obtained results are discussed.
A brief survey is given of some recent results on doping of 4H- and 6H-SiC by ion implantation. The doses and energies used are between 10(9) and 10(15) cm(-2) and 100 keV and 5 MeV, respectively, and B and Al ions (p-type dopants) are predominantly studied. After low dose implantation (less than or equal to 10(10) cm(-2)) a strong compensation is observed in n-type samples and this holds irrespective of implantation temperature up to 600 degreesC. However, at higher doses (10(14)-10(15) Al/cm(2)) the rate of defect recombination (annihilation) increases substantially during hot implants (greater than or equal to 200 degreesC) and in these samples one type of structural defect dominates after past-implant annealing at 1700-2000 degreesC. The defect is identified as a dislocation loop composed of clustered interstitial atoms inserted on the basal plane in the hexagonal crystal structure. Finally, transient enhanced diffusion (TED) of ion-implanted boron in 4H-samples is discussed.
Deep levels arising from incorporation of boron in epitaxial layers are presented together with studies of the Z1,2 deep level. The resultant concentrations are related to growth conditions such as growth time and growth temperature. From this the nature and incorporation of the unresolved deeper boron level is commented. The electrical activity of deep boron centers are compared with the actual amount of boron in the material and concerning their relative concentration differences. © 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Efficient photoluminescence up-conversion is observed in 4H SiC samples containing both the UD-3 defect with its characteristic photoluminescence (PL) no-phonon (NP) line in the near infrared at 1.356 eV and the titanium impurity with its emission in the visible spectral region. When both defects are present, the titanium emission can be excited efficiently by tuning the laser to UD-3. In 4H samples containing either only UD-3 or only titanium, a different photoluminescence up-conversion process can be observed. This second process occurs at photon energies higher than approximately 1.5 eV without exhibiting a clear threshold. In 6H and 15R SiC only this second process was found, even when both the UD-3 defect and the titanium impurity are abundant.
Efficient photoluminescence upconversion is observed in 4H-SiC samples containing both the UD-3 defect and the titanium impurity. In this process, the titanium photoluminescence emission with no-phonon (NP) lines at 2.848 eV (A0) and 2.789 eV (B0) can be excited by tuning the laser to the NP line of UD-3 at 1.356 eV. In samples containing either only UD-3 or only titanium, a different photoluminescence upconversion process can be observed, which occurs at photon energies higher than ~1.5 eV without exhibiting sharp features. At least one of the two processes generates both free electrons and free holes and can, therefore, be a candidate for an important recombination channel.
The intrinsic and impurity related defects in silicon carbide (SiC), grown in a vertical hot wall reactor using chemical vapor deposition, were discussed. Low concentrations of hole traps and electron traps were detected using capacitance transient techniques. The correlation with the carrier lifetime of the investigated epilayers showed that the Z1/2 and EH6/7 centers are the limiting defects.