Low temperature reaction of point defects in ion irradiated 4H-SiC

The low temperature evolution of point defects induced in SiC by ion irradiation was investigated by deep level transient spectroscopy. The defects were introduced by irradiation with a 7.0 MeV beam of C+ ions at a fluence of 6 x 10(9) cm(2). Annealing was then performed in the temperature range of 330-400 K in order to study the change in point defect structure with temperature. The low temperature annealing performed was observed to induce a change in the produced defects. The deep levels related to the S-x (E-c - 0.6 eV) and S-2 defects (E-c -0.7 eV) recovered with annealing while, simultaneously, a new level, S-x (E-c - 0.4 eV), was formed. The activation energy of the S-1 defect is 0.94 eV, while the annealing of both the S-x and S-2 levels occurred with activation energy of 0.65 eV.