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. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.