Fe implantation effect in the 6H-SiC semiconductor investigated by Mössbauer spectrometry

Abstract

P-doped 6H-SiC substrates were implanted with 57Fe ions at 380 °C or 550 °C to produce a diluted magnetic semiconductor with an Fe homogeneous concentration of about 100 nm thickness. The magnetic properties were studied with 57Fe Conversion Electron Mössbauer Spectrometry at room temperature (RT). Results obtained by this technique on annealed samples prove that ferromagnetism in 57Fe-implanted SiC for Fe concentrations close to 2% and 4% is mostly due to Fe atoms diluted in the matrix. In contrast, for Fe concentrations close to 6%, it also comes from Fe in magnetic phase nano-clusters. This study allows quantifying the Fe amount in the interstitial and substitutional sites and the nanoparticles and shows that the majority of the diluted Fe atoms are substituted on Si sites inducing ferromagnetism up to RT.

Mechanism of ferromagnetism in (Fe, Co)-codoped 4H-SiC from density functional theory

“…A series of transition metal (TM=Mn, Fe, Co, Cr, etc)doped SiC samples have been investigated by several research groups [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. Experimentally, Kim and Kim [28] fabricated Fe-doped SiC bulk ceramics by hot-pressing and researched their structure and magnetic properties.…”