Investigation of deep electronic levels in n‐type and p‐type 3C‐SiC using photoluminescence

Abstract

Among the various SiC polytypes, cubic 3C‐SiC is much more difficult to grow in high crystalline quality than the commercially introduced hexagonal 6H‐SiC and 4H‐SiC counterparts. Besides some benefits of 3C‐SiC for transistor applications related to a greater electron mobility and a lower metal‐oxide‐semiconductor interface trap density compared to 4H‐SiC, new potential optoelectronic applications have been introduced very recently. Boron doped 3C‐SiC may act as an ideal candidate for an intermediate band (IB) solar cell material. Aluminum doped p‐type 3C‐SiC could lead to the development of efficient optoelectrochemical water splitting cells. Finally, 3C‐SiC with its various intrinsic point defects has been considered as a suitable candidate for future spintronic‐applications. All these applications will critically depend on further understanding defect behaviour on atomic level. In our study we investigated free standing n‐type and p‐type 3C‐SiC material grown in our lab. Temperature dependent photoluminescence measurements revealed the presence of carbon vacancy related VC and VC-CSi defect transitions in the p‐type materials but not in the n‐type materials. This observation present in as grown 3C-SiC is believed to have significant impact on the optoelectronic applications. Copyright © 2017 VBRI Press.