Specific heat and electronic states of superconducting boron-doped silicon carbide

The discoveries of superconductivity in the heavily-boron doped semiconductors diamond (C:B) in 2004 and silicon (Si:B) in 2006 have renewed the interest in the physics of the superconducting state of doped semiconductors. Recently, we discovered superconductivity in the closely related ''mixed'' system heavily boron-doped silcon carbide (SiC:B). Interestingly, the latter compound is a type-I superconductor whereas the two aforementioned materials are type-II. In this paper we present an extensive analysis of our recent specific-heat study, as well as the band structure and expected Fermi surfaces. We observe an apparent quadratic temperature dependence of the electronic specific heat in the superconducting state. Possible reasons are a nodal gap structure or a residual density of states due to non-superconducting parts of the sample. The basic superconducting parameters are estimated in a Ginzburg-Landau framework. We compare and discuss our results with those reported for C:B and Si:B. Finally, we comment on possible origins of the difference in the superconductivity of SiC:B compared to the two ''parent'' materials C:B and Si:B.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Anharmonic vibrations of the dicarbon antisite defect in 4H-SiC

Dicarbon antisite defects were created by either electron irradiation or ion implantation into 4H-SiC. The no-phonon lines from the dicarbon antisite defect center were observed with their phonon replicas. The stretch frequencies of the defect were observed up to the fifth harmonic. The Morse potential model accounts for the anharmonicity quite well and gives a very good prediction of the vibration energies up to the fifth harmonic with an error of less than 1%. First principles calculations show that the model of a dicarbon antisite defect along with its four nearest neighboring carbon atoms can explain the observed anharmonicity

Electrical activation of high concentrations of N+ and P+ ions implanted into 4H-SiC

Comparative Hall effect investigations are conducted on N- and P-implanted as well as on (N+P)-coimplanted 4H-SiC epilayers. Box profiles with three different mean concentrations ranging from 2.5x10 (exp 18) to 3x10 (exp 20) cm-3 to a depth of 0.8 µm are implanted at 500 °C into the (0001)-face of the initially p-type (Al-doped) epilayers. Postimplantation anneals at 1700 °C for 30 min are conducted to electrically activate the implanted N+ and P+ ions. Our systematic Hall effect investigations demonstrate that there is a critical donor concentration of (2-5) X 10 (exp 19) cm-3. Below this value, N- and P-donors result in comparable sheet resistances. The critical concentration represents an upper limit for electrically active N donors, while P donors can be activated at concentrations above 10 (exp 20) cm-3. This high concentration of electrically active P donors is responsible for the observed low sheet resistance of 35 Omega, which is about one order of magnitude lower than the minimum sheet resistance achieved by N implantation