Optical and electrical properties of 4H-SiC irradiated with Xe ions

Structures with aluminum-ion-implanted p+-n junctions formed in 26-μm-thick chemicalvapor-deposited-epitaxial 4H-SiC layers with an uncompensated donor concentration Nd−Na = (1–3) × 1015 cm−3 are irradiated with 167-MeV Xe ions at fluences of 4 × 109 to 1 × 1011 cm−2 and temperatures of 25 and 500°C. Then as-grown and irradiated structures are thermally annealed at a temperature of 500°C for 30 min. The as-grown, irradiated, and annealed samples are analyzed by means of cathodoluminescence, including the cross-sectional local cathodoluminescence technique, and electrical methods. According to the experimental data, radiation defects penetrate to a depth in excess of several tens of times the range of Xe ions. Irradiation of the structures at 500°C is accompanied by “dynamic annealing” of some low-temperature radiation defects, which increases the radiation resource of 4H-SiC devices operating at elevated temperatures.