4H-SiC Defects Analysis by Micro Raman Spectroscopy

Abstract

Recently, a new Micro-Raman technique has been used to detect extended defects in 4H-SiC homoepitaxy. The method is based on the local increase of free carriers in undoped epitaxies (n < 1016 at/cm-3) produced by a high power laser. The Longitudinal optical Raman mode (LO) is coupled with the electronic plasma generated by the laser pumping; such a Raman signal is sensitive to crystallographic defects that lead to trapping (or dispersion) of the free carriers which results in a loss of coupling. The monitoring of the LOPC allows determining the spatial morphology of extended defects. The results show that the detection of defects via the induced-LOPC (i-LOPC) is totally independent from the stacking fault photoluminescence signals that cover a large energy range up to 0,7eV thus allowing for a single-scan simultaneous determination of any kind of stacking fault. Also, the i-LOPC method shows the connection between the carrier concentration and the carrier lifetime for undoped film, obtaining meaningful information related to electrical properties of the film, and demonstrating that this technique is a fast, reliable and powerful method to characterize most of crystallographic defects (extended and point-like defects) in the semiconductor field.