Ab-Initio Study of Dopant Interstitials in 4H-SiC

We investigated the the interstitial configurations of the p-type dopants boron and aluminum and the n-type dopants nitrogen and phosphorus in 4H-SiC by an ab initio method. In particular, the energetics of these defects provides information on the dopant migration mechanisms. The transferability of the earlier results on the boron migration in 3C-SiC to the hexogonal polytype 4H-SiC is verified. Our calculations suggest that for the aluminum migration a kick-out mechanism prevails, whereas nitrogen and phosphorus diffuse via an interstitialcy mechanism.