Effect of Electron Irradiation on Electrical and Electroluminescent Properties of n+p 4H-SiC Structures

Abstract

A study of how electron irradiation affects the current-voltage (I-V) and electroluminescence (EL) characteristics of two types of 4H-SiC n+p structures with p-base and base doping to ~5∙1015 cm-3 is presented. The characteristics were measured prior to irradiation and after each of five stages of irradiation with 0.9 MeV electrons at doses in the range from 1∙1015 to 1.1∙1016 cm-2. The irradiation leads to an increase in the recombination current, decrease in the intensity of the edge EL (hνmax≈3.18 eV), and increase in the intensity of the infra-red (IR) EL (hνmax≈1.35 eV), which starts to predominate. Presumably, this indicates that the nonequilibrium carrier lifetime decreases and the concentration of acceptor type defects grows as a result of the irradiation. The IR EL, attributed to a complex defect containing a silicon vacancy, is of interest for development of single-photon sources of light.