Aluminum acceptor activation and charge compensation in implanted p-type 4H-SiC

In 4H silicon carbide, aluminum implantation causes unusual high compensation ratios as obtained from Hall effect investigations by fitting the neutrality equation with a single acceptor. We show that this approach cannot fully describe the experimental data, in particular in case of moderate doping and at high measurement temperatures above 450 K. We develop two extended models by adding an additional acceptor- or donor-like defect to the equation. Both approaches describe the data well. However, it turns out that an additional aluminum-correlated acceptor is the more reasonable choice. In this case, the compensation ratio stays almost independent of the implantation dose between 30 % and 40 %. The deep acceptor is located at EV + (280–400) meV.