Ezekiel Omotoso

Electrical Characterization of Defects Introduced in n-Type N-Doped 4H-SiC during Electron Beam Exposure

Deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) was used to characterize the defects introduced in n-type, N-doped, 4H-SiC while being exposed to electron beam evaporation conditions. This was done by heating a tungsten source using an electron beam current of 100 mA, which was not sufficient to evaporate tungsten. Two new defects were introduced during the exposure of 4H-SiC samples to electron beam deposition conditions (without metal deposition) after resistively evaporated nickel Schottky contacts. We established the identity of these defects by comparing their signatures to those of high energy particle irradiation induced defects of the same materials. The defect E0.42 had acceptor-like behaviour and could be attributed to be a silicon or carbon vacancy. The E0.71 had intrinsic nature and was linked to a carbon vacancy and/or carbon interstials.

Electrically active induced energy levels and metastability of B and N vacancy-complexes in 4H-SiC

Electrically active induced energy levels in semiconductor devices could be beneficial to the discovery of an enhanced p or n-type semiconductor. Nitrogen (N) implanted into 4H-SiC is a high energy process that produced high defect concentrations which could be removed during dopant activation annealing. On the other hand, boron (B) substituted for silicon in SiC causes a reduction in the number of defects. This scenario leads to a decrease in the dielectric properties and induced deep donor and shallow acceptor levels. Complexes formed by the N, such as the nitrogen-vacancy centre, have been reported to play a significant role in the application of quantum bits. In this paper, results of charge states thermodynamic transition level of the N and B vacancy-complexes in 4H-SiC are presented. We explore complexes where substitutional N[Formula: see text]/N[Formula: see text] or B[Formula: see text]/B[Formula: see text] sits near a Si (V[Formula: see text]) or C (V[Formula: see text]) vacancy to form vacancy-complexes (N[Formula: see text]V[Formula: see text], N[Formula: see text]V[Formula: see text], N[Formula: see text]V[Formula: see text], N[Formula: see text]V[Formula: see text], B[Formula: see text]V[Formula: see text], B[Formula: see text]V[Formula: see text], B[Formula: see text]V[Formula: see text] and B[Formula: see text]V[Formula: see text]). The energies of formation of the N related vacancy-complexes showed the N[Formula: see text]V[Formula: see text] to be energetically stable close to the valence band maximum in its double positive charge state. The N[Formula: see text]V[Formula: see text] is more energetically stable in the double negative charge state close to the conduction band minimum. The N[Formula: see text]V[Formula: see text] on the other hand, induced double donor level and the N[Formula: see text]V[Formula: see text] induced a double acceptor level. For B related complexes, the B[Formula: see text]V[Formula: see text] and B[Formula: see text]V[Formula: see text] were energetically stable in their single positive charge state close to the valence band maximum. As the Fermi energy is varied across the band gap, the neutral and single negative charge states of the B[Formula: see text]V[Formula: see text] become more stable at different energy levels. B and N related complexes exhibited charge state controlled metastability behaviour.

Ab Initio study of MgTe self-interstitial (Mgi and Tei) : a wide band gap semiconductor

We present results of defect formation energies and charge state thermodynamic transition levels of Mg and Te interstitials in MgTe wurzite structure. We use the generalized gradient approximation and local density approximation functionals in the framework of density functional theory for all calculations. The formation energies of the Mg and Te interstitials in MgTe for both the tetrahedral and hexagonal configurations were obtained. The Mg and Te interstitials in MgTe depending on the functional, introduced transition state levels that are either donor or acceptor within the band gap of the MgTe. The Te interstitial exhibit charge states controlled metastability, negative-U and DX centre properties. The Mg interstitial acts as deep or shallow donor and there is no evidence of acceptor levels found for the Mg interstitial.