Surface Characterization of Ion Implanted 4H-SiC Epitaxial Layers with Ion Energy and Concentration Variations

In this study, Al and N implantation effect on surface properties of 4H-SiC epitaxial layers were investigated before annealing process. AFM results indicated that all implanted samples indicated relatively low RMS roughness values. From UPS and XPS analysis, work function and Si-C binding energy of implanted samples were increased compared to the reference 4H-SiC sample. Those variations may be caused by lattice disorder and amorphization. In addition, TEM image showed damaged area in 4H-SiC epitaxial layer.