The electron beam-induced current method was employed to investigate the electrical activity of dislocations in silicon carbide Schottky and diffused p–n diodes. Dislocations in Schottky diodes appear as dark spots with the electron beam-induced current signal at the dislocations reduced with respect to the background. However, in p–n diodes, the same dislocations exhibited characteristic bright halos, with the electron beam-induced current higher than that of the background. These bright halos were attributed to a non-uniform impurity distribution around dislocations caused by the high-temperature (~2000C) diffusion process.

Electron-Beam Induced Current Observed for Dislocations in Diffused 4H-SiC P–N Diodes. S.Maximenko, S.Soloviev, D.Cherednichenko, T.Sudarshan: Applied Physics Letters, 2004, 84[9], 1576-8