Defects and carrier compensation in semi-insulating 4H-SiC substrates

• Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies revealed that vacancies (VC and VSi), carbon vacancy-antisite pairs (VC CSi) and the divacancy (VC VSi) are common defects in high-purity semi-insulating (HPSI) 4H-SiC substrates. Their concentrations and some of their deep acceptor levels were estimated by EPR and photoexcitation EPR. The commonly observed thermal activation energies, Ea ∼0.8-0.9 eV, ∼1.1 eV, ∼1.25-1.3, and ∼1.5 eV, as determined from the temperature dependence of the resistivity, in different types of HPSI substrates were associated to different deep acceptor levels of VSi, VC, VC CSi, and VC VSi. The annealing behavior of these vacancy-related defects and their interaction at high temperatures (up to 1600°C) in HPSI materials were studied. Carrier compensation processes were proposed to explain the observed change of the thermal activation energy due to high temperature annealing. VC and VC VSi were suggested to be suitable defects for controlling the SI properties whereas the incorporation of VSi and VC CSi during the crystal growth or processing should be avoided for achieving stable HPSI materials. © 2007 The American Physical Society.

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