The effect of grain size and phosphorous-doping of polycrystalline 3C–SiC on infrared reflectance spectra

Highlights: ► IR is investigated as a technique to measure grain size and P-doping of polycrystalline SiC. ► Infrared plasma minima can be used to determine doping levels in 3C–SiC for doping levels greater than 5 × 1017 cm−3. ► A linear relationship is found between FWHM and the inverse of grain size of 3C–SiC irrespective of P-doping level. ► It is further found that ωp is not influenced by the grain size. ► P-doping level has no significant effect on the linear relationship between grain size and surface roughness. - Abstract: The effect of P-doping and grain size of polycrystalline 3C–SiC on the infrared reflectance spectra is reported. The relationship between grain size and full width at half maximum (FWHM) suggest that the behavior of the 3C–SiC with the highest phosphorous doping level (of 1.2 × 1019 at. cm−3) is different from those with lower doping levels (<6.6 × 1018 at. cm−3). It is also further demonstrated that the plasma resonance frequency (ωp) is not influenced by the grain size.