| 1. |
- Bathen, Marianne Etzelmueller, et al.
(författare)
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Dual configuration of shallow acceptor levels in 4H-SiC
- 2024
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Ingår i: Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing. - : ELSEVIER SCI LTD. - 1369-8001 .- 1873-4081. ; 177
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Acceptor dopants in 4H-SiC exhibit energy levels that are located deeper in the band gap than the thermal energy at room temperature (RT), resulting in incomplete ionization at RT. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the defect energetics and how the impurities are introduced into the material is imperative. Herein, we study impurity related defect levels in 4H-SiC epitaxial layers (epi-layers) grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) under various conditions using minority carrier transient spectroscopy (MCTS). We find two trap levels assigned to boron impurities, B and D, which are introduced to varying degrees depending on the growth conditions. A second acceptor level that was labeled X in the literature and attributed to impurity related defects is also observed. Importantly, both the B and X levels exhibit fine structure revealed by MCTS measurements. We attribute the fine structure to acceptor impurities at hexagonal and pseudo -cubic lattice sites in 4H-SiC, and tentatively assign the X peak to Al based on experimental findings and density functional theory calculations.
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| 2. |
- Bathen, M. E., et al.
(författare)
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Influence of carbon cap on self-diffusion in silicon carbide
- 2020
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Ingår i: Crystals. - : MDPI AG. - 2073-4352. ; 10:9, s. 1-11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Self-diffusion of carbon (12C and13C) and silicon (28Si and30Si) in 4H silicon carbide has been investigated by utilizing a structure containing an isotope purified 4H-28Si12C epitaxial layer grown on an n-type (0001) 4H-SiC substrate, and finally covered by a carbon capping layer (C-cap). The13C and30Si isotope profiles were monitored using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) following successive heat treatments performed at 2300–2450◦C in Ar atmosphere using an inductively heated furnace. The30Si profiles show little redistribution within the studied temperature range, with the extracted diffusion lengths for Si being within the error bar for surface roughening during annealing, as determined by profilometer measurements. On the other hand, a significant diffusion of13C was observed into the isotope purified layer from both the substrate and the C-cap. A diffusivity of D = 8.3 × 106 e−10.4/kBT cm2/s for13C was extracted, in contrast to previous findings that yielded lower both pre-factors and activation energies for C self-diffusion in SiC. The discrepancy between the present measurements and previous theoretical and experimental works is ascribed to the presence of the C-cap, which is responsible for continuous injection of C interstitials during annealing, and thereby suppressing the vacancy mediated diffusion.
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| 3. |
- Bosma, Tom, et al.
(författare)
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Broadband single-mode planar waveguides in monolithic 4H-SiC
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Applied Physics. - : AIP Publishing. - 0021-8979 .- 1089-7550. ; 131:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Color-center defects in silicon carbide promise opto-electronic quantum applications in several fields, such as computing, sensing, and communication. In order to scale down and combine these functionalities with the existing silicon device platforms, it is crucial to consider SiC integrated optics. In recent years, many examples of SiC photonic platforms have been shown, like photonic crystal cavities, film-on-insulator waveguides, and micro-ring resonators. However, all these examples rely on separating thin films of SiC from substrate wafers. This introduces significant surface roughness, strain, and defects in the material, which greatly affects the homogeneity of the optical properties of color centers. Here, we present and test a method for fabricating monolithic single-crystal integrated-photonic devices in SiC: tuning optical properties via charge carrier concentration. We fabricated monolithic SiC n-i-n and p-i-n junctions where the intrinsic layer acts as waveguide core, and demonstrate the waveguide functionality for these samples. The propagation losses are below 14 dB/cm. These waveguide types allow for addressing color centers over a broad wavelength range with low strain-induced inhomogeneity of the optical-transition frequencies. Furthermore, we expect that our findings open the road to fabricating waveguides and devices based on p-i-n junctions, which will allow for integrated electrostatic and radio frequency control together with high-intensity optical control of defects in silicon carbide.
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| 4. |
- Cilibrizzi, Pasquale, et al.
(författare)
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Ultra-narrow inhomogeneous spectral distribution of telecom-wavelength vanadium centres in isotopically-enriched silicon carbide
- 2023
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : NATURE PORTFOLIO. - 2041-1723. ; 14:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Spin-active quantum emitters have emerged as a leading platform for quantum technologies. However, one of their major limitations is the large spread in optical emission frequencies, which typically extends over tens of GHz. Here, we investigate single V4+ vanadium centres in 4H-SiC, which feature telecom-wavelength emission and a coherent S = 1/2 spin state. We perform spectroscopy on single emitters and report the observation of spin-dependent optical transitions, a key requirement for spin-photon interfaces. By engineering the isotopic composition of the SiC matrix, we reduce the inhomogeneous spectral distribution of different emitters down to 100 MHz, significantly smaller than any other single quantum emitter. Additionally, we tailor the dopant concentration to stabilise the telecom-wavelength V4+ charge state, thereby extending its lifetime by at least two orders of magnitude. These results bolster the prospects for single V emitters in SiC as material nodes in scalable telecom quantum networks. Several solid-state defect platforms have been proposed for application as a spin-photon interface in quantum communication networks. Here the authors report spin-selective optical transitions and narrow inhomogeneous spectral distribution of V centers in isotopically-enriched SiC emitting in the telecom O-band.
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| 5. |
- Ghezellou, Misagh, 1988-, et al.
(författare)
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Influence of Different Hydrocarbons on Chemical Vapor Deposition Growth and Surface Morphological Defects in 4H‐SiC Epitaxial Layers
- 2024
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Ingår i: Physica status solidi. B, Basic research. - : WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH. - 0370-1972 .- 1521-3951.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Controlled epitaxial growth of 4H-SiC is essential for advancing both power electronics and quantum technologies. This study explores how different carbon sources—methane and propane—affect the surface morphology of these epitaxial layers. By varying C/Si ratios and using the two mentioned hydrocarbons as the carbon source in chloride-based epitaxial growth of 4H-SiC layers, it is unveiled that methane results in an exceptionally smooth surface. However, it pronounces surface irregularities such as short step bunching and dislocation-related etch pits. Moreover, methane amplifies the overgrowth of triangular defects with the 4H polytype. In contrast, the introduction of propane causes a step-bunched surface together with inclined line-like surface morphological defects. Notably, a majority of the triangular defects exhibit a pure 3C character without an overgrown 4H polytype. It is shown that these outcomes could be attributed to different sticking coefficients and diffusivity of the molecular species resulting from different carbon sources on the 4H-SiC surface during the epitaxial growth. This research also uncovers the underlying origins and mechanisms responsible for various surface morphological defects.
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| 6. |
- Ghezellou, Misagh, 1988-, et al.
(författare)
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The role of boron related defects in limiting charge carrier lifetime in 4H–SiC epitaxial layers
- 2023
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Ingår i: APL Materials. - : American Institute of Physics (AIP). - 2166-532X. ; 11:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- One of the main challenges in realizing 4H–SiC (silicon carbide)-based bipolar devices is the improvement of minority carrier lifetime in as-grown epitaxial layers. Although Z1/2 has been identified as the dominant carrier lifetime limiting defect, we report on B-related centers being another dominant source of recombination and acting as lifetime limiting defects in 4H–SiC epitaxial layers. Combining time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) measurement in near band edge emission and 530 nm, deep level transient spectroscopy, and minority carrier transient spectroscopy (MCTS), it was found that B related deep levels in the lower half of the bandgap are responsible for killing the minority carriers in n-type, 4H–SiC epitaxial layers when the concentration of Z1/2 is already low. The impact of these centers on the charge carrier dynamics is investigated by correlating the MCTS results with temperature-dependent TRPL decay measurements. It is shown that the influence of shallow B acceptors on the minority carrier lifetime becomes neutralized at temperatures above ∼422 K. Instead, the deep B related acceptor level, known as the D-center, remains active until temperatures above ∼570 K. Moreover, a correlation between the deep level concentrations, minority carrier lifetimes, and growth parameters indicates that intentional nitrogen doping hinders the formation of deep B acceptor levels. Furthermore, tuning growth parameters, including growth temperature and C/Si ratio, is shown to be crucial for improving the minority carrier lifetime in as-grown 4H–SiC epitaxial layers.
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| 7. |
- Gogova, Daniela, et al.
(författare)
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Epitaxial growth of β -Ga 2 O 3 by hot-wall MOCVD
- 2022
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Ingår i: AIP Advances. - : AIP Publishing. - 2158-3226. ; 12:5, s. 055022-055022
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The hot-wall metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) concept, previously shown to enable superior material quality and highperformance devices based on wide bandgap semiconductors, such as Ga(Al)N and SiC, has been applied to the epitaxial growth ofβ-Ga2O3. Epitaxial β-Ga2O3 layers at high growth rates (above 1 μm/h), at low reagent flows, and at reduced growth temperatures(740 ○C) are demonstrated. A high crystalline quality epitaxial material on a c-plane sapphire substrate is attained as corroborated by a combination of x-ray diffraction, high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy, and spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements. Thehot-wall MOCVD process is transferred to homoepitaxy, and single-crystalline homoepitaxial β-Ga2O3 layers are demonstrated with a 201 ¯rocking curve width of 118 arc sec, which is comparable to those of the edge-defined film-fed grown (201) ¯ β-Ga2O3 substrates, indicative ofsimilar dislocation densities for epilayers and substrates. Hence, hot-wall MOCVD is proposed as a prospective growth method to be furtherexplored for the fabrication of β-Ga2O3
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| 8. |
- Gogova, Daniela, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Epitaxial growth of β-Ga2O3 by hot-wall MOCVD
- 2022
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Ingår i: AIP Advances. - : AIP Publishing. - 2158-3226. ; 12:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The hot-wall metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) concept, previously shown to enable superior material quality and high performance devices based on wide bandgap semiconductors, such as Ga(Al)N and SiC, has been applied to the epitaxial growth of beta-Ga2O3. Epitaxial beta-Ga2O3 layers at high growth rates (above 1 mu m/h), at low reagent flows, and at reduced growth temperatures (740 degrees C) are demonstrated. A high crystalline quality epitaxial material on a c-plane sapphire substrate is attained as corroborated by a combination of x-ray diffraction, high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy, and spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements. The hot-wall MOCVD process is transferred to homoepitaxy, and single-crystalline homoepitaxial beta-Ga2O3 layers are demonstrated with a 201 rocking curve width of 118 arc sec, which is comparable to those of the edge-defined film-fed grown (201) beta-Ga2O3 substrates, indicative of similar dislocation densities for epilayers and substrates. Hence, hot-wall MOCVD is proposed as a prospective growth method to be further explored for the fabrication of beta-Ga2O3.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Heiler, Jonah, et al.
(författare)
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Spectral stability of V2 centres in sub-micron 4H-SiC membranes
- 2024
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Ingår i: NPJ QUANTUM MATERIALS. - : NATURE PORTFOLIO. - 2397-4648. ; 9:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Colour centres in silicon carbide emerge as a promising semiconductor quantum technology platform with excellent spin-optical coherences. However, recent efforts towards maximising the photonic efficiency via integration into nanophotonic structures proved to be challenging due to reduced spectral stabilities. Here, we provide a large-scale systematic investigation on silicon vacancy centres in thin silicon carbide membranes with thicknesses down to 0.25 mu m. Our membrane fabrication process involves a combination of chemical mechanical polishing, reactive ion etching, and subsequent annealing. This leads to highly reproducible membranes with roughness values of 3-4 A, as well as negligible surface fluorescence. We find that silicon vacancy centres show close-to lifetime limited optical linewidths with almost no signs of spectral wandering down to membrane thicknesses of similar to 0.7 mu m. For silicon vacancy centres in thinner membranes down to 0.25 mu m, we observe spectral wandering, however, optical linewidths remain below 200 MHz, which is compatible with spin-selective excitation schemes. Our work clearly shows that silicon vacancy centres can be integrated into sub-micron silicon carbide membranes, which opens the avenue towards obtaining the necessary improvements in photon extraction efficiency based on nanophotonic structuring.
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