Investigation of 4H-SiC epitaxial layers implanted by Al ions

4H-SiC epitaxial layers 26 μm thick with N _d ?N _a = 1 × 10¹⁵ cm^?3 grown by the CVD method on 4H-SiC commercial wafers were implanted by Al ions with energy of 100 keV and a dose of 5 × 10¹⁶ cm^?2. To produce the p ⁺?n junction, a rapid thermal annealing for 15 s at 1700°C was used. The obtained samples were studied by the local cathodoluminescence, X-ray diffractometry, and transmission electron microscopy. It was established that under specified conditions of implantation, the width of a region with a high content of radiation defects exceeded by two orders of magnitude, the depth of the projective range of Al ions and was equal to 40 μm. This result is explained by the combined contribution of the radiation enhanced defect diffusion and long-range action effect. A short-term high-temperature annealing resulted in the recrystallization of the specimen surface layer and enhancement of CVD layer structure.