Characterisation of SiC by IBIC and other IBA techniques

Abstract

Several new technological applications of silicon carbide have attracted significant attention in recent years. As a wide gap semiconductor it has the capability to be used as a room temperature radiation detector. For most applications, material properties like homogeneity of charge transport, presence of defects, resistance to radiation damage, influence of light impurities (such as hydrogen) are of prime importance. Two different kinds of samples, crystalline (4H–SiC) and thin, amorphous (a-Si 1− x C x :H) films, were studied using ion beam techniques. In the case of SiC single crystal radiation detectors, Li and proton beams with a wide range of energies were used to probe the charge collection efficiency at different device depths using the ion beam induced charge technique. Thin, amorphous and microcrystalline Si 1− x C x :H films with a different stoichiometry and different degrees of structural ordering were examined using RBS and ERDA.