Concentration of point defects in 4H-SiC characterized by a magnetic measurement

A magnetic method is presented to characterize the concentration of point defects in silicon carbide. In this method, the concentration of common charged point defects, which is related to the density of paramagnetic centers, is determined by fitting the paramagnetic component of the specimen to the Brillouin function. Several parameters in the Brillouin function can be measured such as: the g-factor can be obtained from electron spin resonance spectroscopy, and the magnetic moment of paramagnetic centers can be obtained from positron lifetime spectroscopy combined with a first-principles calculation. To evaluate the characterization method, silicon carbide specimens with different concentrations of point defects are prepared with aluminum ion implantation. The fitting results of the densities of paramagnetic centers for the implanted doses of 1 × 1014 cm−2, 1 × 1015 cm−2 and 1 × 1016 cm−2 are 6.52 × 1014/g, 1.14 × 1015/g and 9.45 × 1014/g, respectively. The same trends are also observed for the S-parameters in the Doppler broadening spectra. It is shown that this method is an accurate and convenient way to obtain the concentration of point defects in 4H-SiC.