An EPR study of defects induced in 6H-SiC by ion implantation

Crystalline (0001) plane wafers of n-type 6H-SiC have been implanted at room temperature with 200 keV Ge⁺ ions in the dose range 10¹² to 10¹⁵ cm⁻². Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements have been made on these samples both before and after annealing them at temperatures in the range room temperature to 1500°C. The as-implanted samples have a single isotropic and asymmetric line EPR spectrum whose width, ΔB_pp, increases with ion dose before falling when a buried continuous amorphous layer is produced. This increase is interpreted in terms of the change in the relative intensity of a line with g = 2.0028 ± 0.0002, ΔB_pp = 0.4 mT associated primarily with carbon dangling bonds in a-SiC and a line with g in the range 2.0033 to 2.0039 of uncertain origin. The variation with anneal temperature of the populations of these defects is reported.