Radiation hardness of n-type SiC Schottky barrier diodes irradiated with MeV He ion microbeam

We studied the radiation hardness of 4H-SiC Schottky barrier diodes (SBD) for the light ion detection and spectroscopy in harsh radiation environments. n-Type SBD prepared on nitrogen-doped (similar to 4 x 10(14) cm(-3)) epitaxial grown 4H-SiC thin wafers have been irradiated by a raster scanning alpha particle microbeam (2 and 4 MeV He2+ ions separately) in order to create patterned damage structures at different depths within a sensitive volume of tested diodes. Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) analysis revealed the formation of two deep electron traps in the irradiated and not thermally treated 4H-SiC within the ion implantation range (E1 and E2). The E2 state resembles the well-known Z(1/2) center, while the E1 state could not be assigned to any particular defect reported in the literature. Ion Beam Induced Charge (IBIC) microscopy with multiple He ion probe microbeams (1-6 MeV) having different penetration depths in tested partly damaged 4H-SiC SBD has been used to determine the degradation of the charge collection efficiency (CCE) over a wide fluence range of damaging alpha particle. A non-linear behavior of the CCE decrease and a significant degradation of the spectroscopic performance with increasing He ion fluence were observed above the value of 10(11) cm(-2). (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.