Instrumented micro-indentations were performed at room temperature on 4H-SiC homoepitaxial single crystals with different doping. For these experiments, it appears that the pop-in event occurs at the same level of load for intrinsic and n-type SiC and at a higher load level for p-type. Correlation of the pop-in event with dislocation nucleation indicates that doping acts on dislocation nucleation and that p-type doping plays a hardening role on the plastic behaviour of 4H-SiC. This result was confirmed by the conventional measurement of imprint size using scanning electron microscopy.

Effect of Electronic Doping on the Plasticity of Homoepitaxial 4H-SiC Single Crystals. J.L.Demenet, M.Amer, A.Mussi, J.Rabier: Journal of Physics - Conference Series, 2011, 281[1], 012003