Photoluminescence of 10H-SiC

Abstract

The photoluminescence of the near band gap emission of 10H-SiC is revealed for the first time and detected just below 3.0 eV. The crystallinity thus polytype of the sample is controlled with transmission electron microscope analyses and Laue diffraction. On the photoluminescence spectra up to eight sharp lines are associated to the non-phonon lines of the nitrogen bound exciton even if ten are expected in 10H-SiC. Phonon replicas of these non-phonon lines are observed at lower energy with energy separations similar than those in other hexagonal SiC polytypes. At moderate temperature free-exciton replicas are also observed which allow the determination of the excitonic band gap at 3020.6 meV, value in agreement with the hexagonality of 10H-SiC of 40%. The binding energies associated to the nitrogen bound-excitons are determined as well as the ionization energies of the nitrogen donors in the 10H-SiC polytype.