Papers by Author: Qiang Li

Abstract: Undoped 6H- and 4H-SiC crystals were grown by Halide Chemical Vapor Deposition (HCVD). Concentrations of impurities were measured by various methods including secondary-ion-mass spectrometry (SIMS). With increasing C/Si ratio, nitrogen concentration decreased and boron concentration increased as expected for the site-competition effect. Hall-effect measurements on 6H-SiC crystals showed that with the increase of C/Si ratio from 0.06 to 0.7, the Fermi level was shifted from Ec-0.14 eV (nitrogen donors) to Ev+0.6 eV (B-related deep centers). Crystals grown with C/Si > 0.36 showed high resistivities between 1053 and 1010 4cm at room temperature. The high resistivities are attributed to close values of the nitrogen and boron concentrations and compensation by deep defects present in low densities.

Abstract: The effects of H2 addition to the growth ambient during physical vapor transport (PVT) growth of 6H and 4H SiC were investigated using SIMS, DLTS and Hall effect measurements. Using this hybrid physical-chemical vapor transport (HPVT) approach, boules were grown using Ar-H2 and He-H2 mixtures with H2 concentrations up to 50 at%. Thermodynamic modeling suggests that addition of H2 improves the carbon transport in HPVT compared to standard PVT. This should lead to a substantial decrease in the concentration of residual N donors and the concentration of electron traps. This is confirmed by the experimental results. As expected, the source transport rate increased as H2 was added to the growth environment due to increased C transport. The background nitrogen concentration and the free electron density decreased significantly with increasing H2 concentration. The formation of electron traps (activation energies of 0.4 eV, 0.6-0.65 eV, 0.7 eV, 0.9 eV and 1 eV) was also strongly suppressed. These changes were observed for H2 concentrations as low as 4 at%. The decreased N concentration improves the ability to produce high resistivity SiC material, and for H2 concentrations as high as 10-25%, the very first wafers cut from the seed end of the boules have a resistivity exceeding 106
cm.

Abstract: For undoped 6H-SiC boules grown by physical vapor transport the variations of resistivity, of the type and density of deep electron and hole traps, and of the concentration of nitrogen and boron were studied as a function of position in the cross section normal to the growth axis and along the growth direction. It was observed that the concentrations of all deep electron and hole traps decreased when moving from seed to tail of the boule and from the center to the edge of the wafers. Modeling of the growth process suggests that the C/Si ratio increases in a similar fashion and could be responsible for observed changes. We also discuss the implications of such stoichiometry changes on compensation mechanisms rendering the crystals semi-insulating and on electrical uniformity of SI-SiC wafers.