Electron-beam-induced current and cathodoluminescence study of dislocation arrays in 4H-SiC homoepitaxial layers

Chen, Bin; Sekiguchi, Takashi; Ohyanagi, Takasumi; Matsuhata, Hirofumi; Kinoshita, Akimasa; Okumura, Hajime

doi:10.1063/1.3236579

Cited by 25 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…[7][8][9][10][11] Since SiC is a promising wide-bandgap semiconductor aimed at highpower, high-frequency, and high-temperature applications, many investigations of the SFs are related to the devices ͑p-i-n diodes͒, such as the following aspects: ͑i͒ the degradation of SiC devices; 12,13 ͑ii͒ the nucleation sites of the SFs; [14][15][16] ͑iii͒ the driving force for the SF expansion under forward bias stressing; [17][18][19] ͑iv͒ partial dislocations ͑PDs͒ bounding the SFs 20-22 and ͑v͒ theoretical calculation of the electronic state of the SFs. [23][24][25] However, the fundamental/ intrinsic properties of the SFs in SiC have not been clarified very well.…”

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Evidence for a general mechanism modulating carrier lifetime in SiC

et al. 2010

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Stacking faults ͑SFs͒ in semiconductors are generally regarded as the electrically active defects that reduce the minority carrier lifetime. In contrast to this typical phenomenon, here we report that the SFs in SiC functionalize as the ideal quantum well ͑QW͒ structure for electrons. Due to the QW effect, an increase of minority carrier lifetime is observed at the SF regions. The reason for the lifetime increment is discussed with the electron dissipation along the SF plane. Our results suggest that this is a general mechanism regarding the increase of minority carrier lifetime at the defects.Stacking faults ͑SFs͒ are one of the most fundamental planar defects in crystalline solids. The SFs occur in a number of crystal structures, but the common example is in close-packed structures. In Si material, the SFs are usually formed on ͕111͖ planes by the application of a shear stress and are regarded as the electrically active defects. 1,2 In a compound semiconductor, such as SiC, the situation becomes complicated since SiC is known to have hundreds of different polytypes. 3-5 Especially, the polymorphism of SiC is particular in that all its different crystalline forms have a same atomic plane in common and differ only in the stacking sequence along the direction normal to this plane. It has been reported that SiC has a very low SF energy. 6 Therefore, various kinds of SFs are expected to appear if the local stacking sequence is interrupted somewhat with respect to the host material.Indeed, several types of SFs differing in the stacking arrangement have been already observed in SiC. 7-11 Since SiC is a promising wide-bandgap semiconductor aimed at highpower, high-frequency, and high-temperature applications, many investigations of the SFs are related to the devices ͑p-i-n diodes͒, such as the following aspects: ͑i͒ the degradation of SiC devices; 12,13 ͑ii͒ the nucleation sites of the SFs; 14-16 ͑iii͒ the driving force for the SF expansion under forward bias stressing; 17-19 ͑iv͒ partial dislocations ͑PDs͒ bounding the SFs 20-22 and ͑v͒ theoretical calculation of the electronic state of the SFs. 23-25 However, the fundamental/ intrinsic properties of the SFs in SiC have not been clarified very well. The clarification may provide fundamental knowledge of SF behavior in polytypic materials as well as further facilitate the understanding of SF effect on device properties.In this paper, we report on the intrinsic feature of the SFs in SiC. Different from the common feature in Si, we show that the SFs in SiC act as the ideal quantum-well ͑QW͒ structure for electrons. We also observe an increase of minority carrier lifetime at the SFs, which is not generally expected. We thus propose that the lifetime increment is associated with the QW-related "pump effect" dissipating the majority carriers, which would be a general mechanism regarding the increase of minority carrier lifetime at the defects.The common polytype of SiC, 4H, was used in this work. The 4H-SiC epi-films ͑6 m thick͒ were grown on the n + -type 4H-SiC ͑0001͒ off...

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Evidence for a general mechanism modulating carrier lifetime in SiC

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“…EBIC is also a useful technique for the in situ study of the dislocation motion or reaction (Chen et al, 2008b(Chen et al, , 2009. Figure 35 shows the EBIC images depicting the dissociation of a BPD in 4H-SiC under e-beam irradiation (Chen et al 2008b).…”

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Assessment of Semiconductors by Scanning Electron Microscopy Techniques

Salviati

Lazzarini

Sekiguch³

et al. 2011

Comprehensive Semiconductor Science and Technology

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“…The formation of SFs by dissociating basal plane dislocations (BPDs) is often observed under forward bias stressing. 4,5) Recently, Electron-beam-induced current (EBIC) and cathodoluminescence (CL) study on 4H-SiC have shown that BPDs are easily dissociated into two partial dislocations with a SF between them under the electron-beam irradiation. 6) In this paper, we report a study on the atomic-and electronic-structure of a dislocation loop and a stacking fault in 4H-SiC.…”

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Structures and Local Electronic States of Dislocation Loop in 4H-SiC via a Linear-Scaling Tight-Binding Study

Hamasaki

Tsuruta

2011

Mater. Trans.

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The atomic-and electronic-level structures of a dislocation loop and a stacking fault in 4H-SiC crystal are investigated by using large-scale tight-binding (TB) molecular-dynamics simulation. We employ a linear-scaling TB method implemented on a parallel computer in order to accelerate the 9,600-atoms calculation which is required for such a nanoscale simulation. We find that the initial configuration that involves unstable C-C networks around the dislocation loop is relaxed to a structure having six-membered rings, and that the distribution of electron populations is inhomogeneous on the loop. The local electronic density of states shows two peaks in the bulk band gap, where one of these peaks may correspond to the defect state observed in EBIC and CL experiments.

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Electron-beam-induced current and cathodoluminescence study of dislocation arrays in 4H-SiC homoepitaxial layers

Abstract: Cathodoluminescence and electron beam induced current investigations of stacking faults mechanically introduced in 4H-SiC in the brittle domain

Cited by 25 publications

References 22 publications

Evidence for a general mechanism modulating carrier lifetime in SiC

Evidence for a general mechanism modulating carrier lifetime in SiC

Assessment of Semiconductors by Scanning Electron Microscopy Techniques

Structures and Local Electronic States of Dislocation Loop in 4H-SiC via a Linear-Scaling Tight-Binding Study

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