Deep Traps and Charge Carrier Lifetimes in 4H-SiC Epilayers

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Carrier lifetimes and the dominant electron and hole traps were investigated in a set of thick (9-104mm) undoped 4H-SiC epitaxial layers grown by CVD homoepitaxy. Deep trap spectra were measured by deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) with electrical or optical injection, while lifetimes were measured by room temperature time-resolved photoluminescence (PL). The main electron traps detected in all samples were due to Ti, Z1/Z2 centers, and EH6/EH7 centers. Two boron-related hole traps were observed with activation energies of 0.3 eV (boron acceptors) and 0.6 eV (boron-related D centers). The concentration of electron traps decreased with increasing layer thickness and increased toward the edge of the wafers. PL lifetimes were in the 400 ns-1800 ns range with varying injection and generally correlated with changes in the density of Z1/Z2 and to a lesser extent the EH6/EH7 electron traps. However, the results of DLTS measurements on p-i-n diode structures suggest that the capture of injected holes is much more efficient for the Z1/Z2 traps compared to the EH6/EH7 centers making the Z1/Z2 more probable candidates for the role of lifetime killers. A good fit of the thickness dependence of the measured lifetimes to the usual analytical form was obtained assuming that Z1/Z2 is the dominant hole recombination center and that the surface recombination velocity was 2500 cm/sec.