Hydrogen-Induced Blistering of SiC: The Role of Post-Implant Multi-Step Annealing Sequences

Abstract

Hydrogen-exfoliation has become a viable approach to transfer SiC thin layers onto different substrate materials. However, little attention has been paid to the exfoliation-inducing annealing conditions. To investigate the annealing conditions, 4H SiC wafers were implanted with either 2.5×1016 H2 + cm-2 or 5.0×1016 cm-2at 37 KeV. Post-implant, multi-step annealing sequences were examined in order to promote more efficient blistering, and it was found that a low temperature initial annealing step (T ≈ 500°C) can decrease the annealing time necessary in the high temperature regime; this was attributed to a nucleation of hydrogen induced platelet defects during the low temperature annealing regime and efficient splitting during a higher temperature (900 °C) anneal. This process is similar to what is observed for InP and Si exfoliation, except that the annealing processes occur at higher temperature.