Anomalous formation of carbon-related defects during high temperature Ar annealing in 4H-SiC enhanced by prior thermal oxidation

Using attenuated total reflectance Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), we found that the thermal oxidation of SiC significantly enhances the formation of carbon related defects during a following high temperature Ar annealing in the near-surface region of SiC. The magnitude of this enhancement was strongly correlated with the duration and temperature of the thermal oxidation, which suggested that the thermal oxidation induces defects in near surface region of SiC to lead the formation of carbon related defects detectable by ATR-FTIR clearly by the high temperature Ar annealing.