Effect of Helium implantation on gettering and electrical properties of 4H-SiC epilayers

This paper tests the gettering ability of sites created by He implantation in 4H-SiC while heating the sample or not, and their impact on carrier lifetime. The spatial distribution of implantation-induced defects (cavities, stacking faults and dislocations) is studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and is compared to gold profiles performed by Rutherford Backscattering (RBS) in samples intentionally contaminated with gold. Minority carrier lifetimes are also measured with a specific set-up based on microwave photoconductivity decay (μ-PCD). Though gold atoms do not seem to be efficiently trapped by cavities, the presence of dislocations is of major importance to monitor gold diffusion. Indeed, they can double both its level and its diffusion length in the bulk. Gold is assumed to diffuse faster along dislocation cores. Besides, the implantation-related defects are found to improve the carrier lifetime in the material, but the role of He2+ left in cavities remains to be investigated.