Nuclear Engineering and Technology (Jan 2023)
Electrical characteristics and deep-level transient spectroscopy of a fast-neutron-irradiated 4H–SiC Schottky barrier diode
Abstract
The dependence of the electrical characteristics on the fast neutron fluence of an epitaxial 4H–SiC Schottky barrier diode (SBD) was investigated. The 30 MeV cyclotron was used for fast neutron irradiation. The neutron fluences evaluated through Monte Carlo simulation were in the 2.7 × 1011 to 1.45 × 1013 neutrons/cm2 range. Current–voltage and capacitance–voltage measurements were performed to characterize the samples by extracting the parameters of the irradiated SBDs. Neutron-induced defects in the epitaxial layer were identified and quantified using a deep-level transient spectroscopy measurement system developed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. As the neutron fluence increased from 2.7 × 1011 to 1.45 × 1013 neutrons/cm2, the concentration of the Z1/2 defects increased by approximately 20 times. The maximum defect concentration was estimated as 1.5 × 1014 cm−3 at a neutron fluence of 1.45 × 1013 neutrons/cm2.
