Omotoso, EzekielMeyer, Walter ErnstAuret, Francois DanieParadzah, Alexander TaperaLegodi, Matshisa Johannes2016-09-122016-03Omotoso, E, Meyer, WE, Auret, FD, Paradzah, AT & Legodi, MJ 2016, 'Electrical characterization of deep levels created by bombarding nitrogen-doped 4HSiC with alpha-particle irradiation', Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B : Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, vol. 371, pp. 312-316.0168-583X (print)1872-9584 (online)10.1016/j.nimb.2015.09.084http://hdl.handle.net/2263/56709Deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and Laplace-DLTS were used to investigate the effect of alpha-particle irradiation on the electrical properties of nitrogen-doped 4H-SiC. The samples were bombarded with alpha-particles at room temperature (300 K) using an americium-241 (241Am) radionuclide source. DLTS revealed the presence of four deep levels in the as-grown samples, E0.09, E0.11, E0.16 and E0.65. After irradiation with a fluence of 4.1 × 1010 alpha-particles-cm–2, DLTS measurements indicated the presence of two new deep levels, E0.39 and E0.62 with energy level, EC – 0.39 eV and EC –0.62 eV, with an apparent capture cross sections of 2×10–16 and 2×10–14 cm2, respectively. Furthermore, irradiation with fluence of 8.9×1010 alpha-particles-cm–2 resulted in disappearance of shallow defects due to a lowering of the Fermi level. These defects - minutes. Defects, E0.39 and E0.42 with close emission rates were attributed to silicon or carbon vacancy and could only be separated by using high resolution Laplace-DLTS. The DLTS peaks at EC – (0.55-0.70) eV (known as Z1/Z2) were attributed to an isolated carbon vacancy (VC).en© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Notice : this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B : Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms. A. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. A definitive version was subsequently published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B : Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, vol. 371, pp. 312-316, 2016. doi : 10.1016/j.nimb.2015.09.084.4H-SiCAlpha-particle irradiationAnnealingSchottky barrier diodeDeep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS)Laplace-DLTSPostprint Article