The Strong Field Transport in 4H- and 6H-SiC at Low Temperature

Abstract

A natural superlattice (NSL) in silicon carbide polytypes is shown to introduce a miniband structure into the conduction band, which leads to depressing of the electron impact zone-zone ionization at 300K with the electric field directed along the crystal axis or the NSL axis. The NSL influence can be also observed in the nitrogen impact ionization at 4.2K. In this case for the parallel field the impurity breakdown has not been fixed up to the fields 1.6 MV/cm in 6H-SiC. These results are explained by the insufficient gain in miniband for the ionization electron energy. Therewith the impurity breakdown at the electric field perpendicular to this axis correlates with a classical picture.