Some new insights into the impact of annealing on single stacking faults in 4H-SiC

Annealing and LEEBI Effects on the Stacking Fault Expansion and Shrinking in 4H‐SiC

“…It follows from these results that the excess carriers can travel along SSFs at distances up to 50 μm that confirms the results obtained in Ref. and essentially exceeds the bulk diffusion length of 2 μm. Two possible reasons for this long travelling distance of partial dislocation outside the irradiation region can be considered.…”

“…A SSF shrink due to annealing was also observed in Ref. [3,10,14,26]. To explain this shrink one should take into account that the Fermi level shifts down with a temperature increase and can become lower than the SSF lowest level.…”

“…[18] Such separation can suppress the excess carrier recombination. [10,18] Besides, under a local excitation the position of quasi-Fermi level is changed that leads to an appearance of electric field along the SSF, which enhances the carrier propagation. The dislocation velocity, as can be expected, depends on the excess carrier concentration, which decreases with a distance from the irradiated region boundary and with a depth that explains the decrease of dislocation velocity outside the irradiation region.…”

“…[1][2][3][4] It is well established that excess carrier injection in p-i-n diodes under forward bias or by excitation with light or electron beams at room temperature leads to the single SSF expansion. [2,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] The energy gain due to electron capture into quantum wells associated with the SSFs (so-called "quantum well action") [13][14][15][16][17] is widely considered as a driving force for SSF nucleation and expansion. Single SSFs can be also introduced by plastic deformation at temperatures higher than 573 K. [9,10,18] although the phase transformation to 3C-SiC observed after nanoindentation at room temperature [19] can be also considered as an indication of SSF generation.…”

“…[2,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] The energy gain due to electron capture into quantum wells associated with the SSFs (so-called "quantum well action") [13][14][15][16][17] is widely considered as a driving force for SSF nucleation and expansion. Single SSFs can be also introduced by plastic deformation at temperatures higher than 573 K. [9,10,18] although the phase transformation to 3C-SiC observed after nanoindentation at room temperature [19] can be also considered as an indication of SSF generation. It is widely accepted that the expansion of single SSFs under excess carrier injection is driven by a 30 Si(g) glide.…”