Electron traps in β-SiC grown by chemical vapor deposition on silicon (100) substrates

Abstract

Deep electron traps in heteroepitaxial β-SiC films grown on Si(100) substrates by chemical vapor deposition were investigated. Capacitance deep level transient spectroscopy revealed the presence of several traps, the majority of which are rather process-induced as expected for a highly defective material such as β-SiC grown heteroepitaxially on Si. Samples of different origin as well as various surface treatments have been used to determine traps intrinsic to β-SiC heteroepitaxial material. Three main traps were detected, independently of the surface treatment, at 0.32, 0.52, and 0.56 eV below the conduction-band minimum. Comparison with theoretically predicted activation energies for the single native defects did not permit the assignment of the observed traps to any of these defects.