Ultrahigh-temperature microwave annealing of Al⁺- and P⁺-implanted 4H-SiC

In this work, an ultrafast solid-state microwaveannealing has been performed, in the temperature range of 1700–2120°C on Al⁺- and P⁺-implanted 4H-SiC. The solid-state microwave system used in this study is capable of raising the SiC sample temperatures to extremely high values, at heating rates of ∼600°C∕s. The samples were annealed for 5–60s in a pure nitrogen ambient. Atomic force microscopy performed on the annealed samples indicated a smooth surface with a rms roughness of 1.4nm for 5×5μm² scans even for microwaveannealing at 2050°C for 30s. Auger sputter profiling revealed a <7nm thick surface layer composed primarily of silicon, oxygen, and nitrogen for the samples annealed in N₂, at annealing temperatures up to 2100°C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that this surface layer is mainly composed of silicon oxide and silicon nitride. Secondary ion mass spectrometry depth profiling confirmed almost no dopant in diffusion after microwaveannealing at 2100°C for 15s. However, a sublimation of ∼100nm of the surface SiC layer was observed for 15sannealing at 2100°C. Rutherford backscattering spectra revealed a lattice damage-free SiC material after microwaveannealing at 2050°C for 15s, with scattering yields near the virgin SiC material. Van der Pauw–Hall measurements have revealed sheet resistance values as low as 2.4kΩ∕□ for Al⁺-implanted material annealed at 2100°C for 15s and 14Ω∕□ for the P+-implanted material annealed at 1950°C for 30s. The highest electron and hole mobilities measured in this work were 100 and 6.8cm2/Vs, respectively, for the P⁺- and Al⁺-implanted materials.The GMU work is supported by Army Research Of- fice Dr. Prater under Grant No. W911NF-04-1-0428 and a subcontract from LT Technologies under NSF SBIR Grant No. 0539321

Solid-state microwave annealing of ion-implanted 4H-SiC

Solid-state microwave annealing was performed at temperatures up to 2120 °C for 30 s on ion-implanted 4H-SiC in N2 ambient. The surface roughness in the samples annealed without a surface cap at 1950 °C is 2.65 nm for 10 μm × 10 μm atomic force micr